bittman made this. and then i did too. and now you should. because it’s both fast and easy and well, quite perfect. besides the 4 ingredients in the title there’s only red chili flakes, olive oil and a bit of cheese on top – that’s it.

this is a humble dish. a weeknight dish. although it’s also a perfect primi for a bigger dinner. to be quite honest, this pasta opened for the pompano. but on a different day it would have been very respectable all on its own.

so yes, these are the kinds of dishes you need to know about. and really, any green will do. you could add some fresh oven roasted tomatoes, some grilled baby eggplant slices – or hey, use zucchini. because you know that’s coming in droves. you csa members out there? soon enough it will be Zucchini Forever. so you are very welcome in advance. because i know you. come august? you’ll be begging for a fresh take on a zucchini dish… so toasted garlic and fresh breadcrumbs are now IMPORTANT. because together they make nearly everything better.

a sharper close up because i thought you might be pining for a better look at this…

oh, and as you might imagine, the process is a total cinch. just get some well salted water to a rolling boil. in the meantime heat some olive oil in a pan and toast some sliced garlic until it’s a light brown. reserve off to the side. then do the same for your fresh breadcrumbs. and listen, there’ll be no panko or store bought crumbs allowed here, ok? just dice up some good leftover fresh bread or give it a quick whirl in the old fo-pro. bag and freeze. then use with abandon whenever…

the broccoli rabe goes into the boiling water first and after 3 or 4 minutes, it’s removed with tongs and placed in a bowl of very cold water. drain and roughly chop the greens and set aside. then the pasta goes into the water to cook. when it’s done, add the noodles to a very warm pan along with the greens. add the chili flakes to taste and then toss well with perhaps a bit more olive oil – only if needed. plate the pasta, adding the toasted breadcrumbs, then some of the garlic slices and a bit of cheese – parmigiano or pecorino. use whatever you have on hand. you don’t need much.

i love this kind of dish. every ingredient pops. and it’s just so basic – but somehow it’s also so damn good. so good that really, i could eat this over and over again, reincarnating it into something a bit different each time. or not.

you see that bowl right there? it’s my kind of food…

(bittman’s version with a video – i just love this guy)

in less than three weeks i take off for nyc for the tri-annual mommy visit, haircut and restaurant go around. therefore all socializing over food has now come to a screeching halt and my already compromised caloric intake needs to come down even further in preparation for what inevitably becomes quite the food-centric getaway. until then i am TRYING VERY HARD to figure out a way to order light and not feel the need to eat everything. or drink too much wine. and still have dessert. but not over do it.

in other words i am going to attempt to not be me.
wish me luck with that…

but the other night, overall, i thought i did quite well. there were 6 of us for dinner and i was in my kitchen and in control of the menu. beforehand i had boldly told my friends. no nibbles or appetizers, no salad – or dessert. i’m serving one thing. and a loaf of crusty bread, which for the record i personally abstained from – as well as the impressive wines that my friends brought over, because i am not only disciplined and strong (albeit in small spurts), but obviously also a masochist.

under these circumstances, i knew whatever i made had to be pretty striking. i also knew i was going to do a seafood dish but couldn’t face the selection at nashville’s ‘whole foods’. i considered a few cioppino recipes and even glanced at julia’s bouillabaisse. but then i wandered over to suzanne goin’s ‘sunday suppers at lucques‘ and i spotted "the dish". page 268-9. mussels and clams with vermouth, cannellini beans and cavolo nero. reading through it, i was captivated by the ingredient list. this was so very my kind of food. for those of you that haven’t been paying attention, i gravitate towards simple italian food, stressing the quality of the ingredients – ad nauseam.

i called d’artagnen to ask who they considered to be their seafood equivalent and they reminded me of browne trading. the way i see that is: if it’s good enough for eric ripert and daniel boulud, then i’m in. so i ordered my fish from them, which turned out to be a good move on my part. after speaking to nick for awhile about what was freshest and best, that’s about when i i decided to veer from the recipe, if only by upping the seafood ante. goin called for using clams and mussels, and to that i added 3 small lobsters, scallops, haddock and the last of the wonderful maine sweet shrimp, which was to be used as a garnish due to its inability to take much heat. i also doubled the recipe. because you just can’t have too much of a good thing…

and that, dear readers? is the very philosophy that gets me into trouble…

the largest serving vessel in my home is my 16" wok. i rarely use it because, well, it’s just huge. but this was the perfect thing for this dish and i was grateful that i had it around.

everything was piled into the wok which filled it to the brim – and somehow our italian seafood dinner looked quite at home, all nestled in the unfamiliar asian skillet. i wish i’d been more ‘on it’ with my photo’s, but once that seafood was ready to rock and roll, i had other things on my mind. so cary, being the good boyfriend, grabbed the camera and took some shots.

the recipe is both straight forward and detailed  – a testament to goin’s book which leaves very little room for any error with a lot of very helpful techniques and explanations… go and buy this book. seriously. it’s a great one…

the beans were of course from rancho gordo. they were soaked for a few hours, although goin throws hers in dry. the bean component was made the night before and i’ve got to tell you, it is beyond truly outstanding.

here’s how it works: toast 2 teaspoons of fennel seeds until brown and then pound them roughly in a mortar. in a medium pot heat 1/4 cup of olive oil and when hot, add to that a sprig of rosemary and a crumbled chili de arbol. sizzle for a minute and then add the fennel seed and a cup or so of diced onion along with a tablespoon of thyme leaves. sauté until the onion is wilted. add the beans and coat them for about a minute and then add water to 3" above the beans. bring to a boil and the reduce heat. place a paper towel over the beans to keep them submerged and add 2 teaspoons kosher salt after about 30 minutes (mine took longer to soften) and then cook adding water as necessary. you want to have a good amount of bean liquid that is starchy and rich. because this is THE STUFF that makes the final dish sing. there’s no fish stock used in this recipe.

and even if you don’t make this dish then just make these beans. and serve them with roast chicken. or with a poached egg and broccoli rabe. the beans themselves will knock you over. you will make them and then you will love me because i will have opened your eyes to greatness. they way i see it, it’s the very least i could do...

i also must tell you that these little sweet maine shrimp are very delicious little suckers, but you have to treat them with the utmost respect. too much heat and they turn to a mealy mush. after the dish was done and off the heat, these were placed on top of the rest of the shellfish and the residual warmth was all that was needed.

a perfect 1990 barbera sits beside a grassy tuscan olive oil. one bowl to eat from, and another for the shells…

a precarious balance – a profoundly visual metaphor for life…

the kale gets blanched in salted water and wrung out and cut into ribbons. olive oil goes into a (wide not tall) hot pot followed by diced red onion, a bulb of chopped fennel, tons of sliced garlic, chiles, rosemary, thyme and salt and pepper. then the greens for about 10 minutes until they break down – and then the beans along with the liquid. after a few minutes add the clams and then a couple of minutes later the vermouth and then the mussels. let it all steam until the shells open and then stir in a few tablespoons of butter. i forgot to taste for seasoning but i lucked out. it was just right.

when i make this again, and i will, i think i’ll keep it less busy. the lobster was wonderful but extraneous, the haddock got knocked around by the shells and shredded – making for a heartier broth, but really in the end was unnecessary. the browne trading’s scallops were fresh and phenomenal, as was all the seafood. they’d be a do-over for sure, if only because cary loves them best.

goin’s ‘sunday suppers’ is a seasonal book – from market to table. this recipe was listed for fall, which although we’re completely faced in the other direction, it still felt right on a cool and rainy friday evening. we talked, they drank, and we laughed our asses off for 4 hours. everyone chipped in on the seafood tab which eased the $ load and we couldn’t have had a better seafood dinner anywhere in nashville.

and i’ll venture to guess that no one missed dessert in the least…

i eat a lot of beans. i didn’t used to. but rancho gordo changed all that. i know, you’ve heard it before. but RG has radically altered my personal food pyramid and now, well – i eat a lot of beans…

so in the past two weeks, i’ve made three big pots of very different bean stews and all of them were quite good. but being that this is my every day kind of food, i don’t always write about such lunches and dinners. but there i was, home with no car and a new puppy – and so i took a few shots anyway – and now i’ve decided that as a trio it all makes for a solid post. and so i present to you a virtual hill of beans…

but – being that my memory is only so acute, i may have forgotten a thing or two about the first dish. and in all fairness, that one isn’t even a bean dish. it’s lentils and orzo. and i am not lying when i tell you that i’ve no earthly idea what went into that one. except the green lentils and the last of a container of whole wheat orzo. and carrots and onions. oh, and chicken stock. and i vaguely remember a healthy dose of my sicilian oregano going in there… but ok, really. now i am clueless. except to say that it was damn good food and even better with an egg on top.

oh dear, i just remembered this one too…

these were some leftover christmas lima beans from something or another, way back when, and this was lunch one of those days and it was just so pretty i couldn’t resist taking a picture. a typical lunch in the life of claudia young. now you have it. more beans. and arugula, which i love almost as much as i love beans, if not more. depending when you might ask…

bean dish #2 was actually really fun to make. i had no idea what i was going for, and i just kind of let each ingredient added determine the next in line. at one point i realized i’d better write down what i was doing – and it looked a little bit like this:

brown tepiary beans
whole garlic cloves
celery
carrots
bay leaves
chopped shallots
lots of fresh thyme
a heaping spoonful of pimenton
a can of san marzano tomatoes
collard greens
white rice
crushed chili pepper
one fat anchovy
a lot of balsamic vinegar
3 cups of brown veal stock

all served up in a bowl with a healthy pour of some wonderful grassy green olive oil floating on top. and of course, the obligatory fried egg…

somehow there’s no picture except for this, the final addition of the veal stock, which i kind of got a kick out of. being that it was an afterthought, i grabbed some of my stock from the freezer, peeled off the bag and stuck it into the middle of the pot like a meaty popsicle.

and then lastly, i had soaked some calypso beans and had a few sweet potatoes laying around so i decided to get crazy, veer from the italian and go all carribean. which was an interesting study being that i know nothing about that genre of cooking. BUT by god, i’m a googling fool and after punching in "carribean bean and sweet potato stew", my next ingredients were:

cinnamon
thyme
bay leaves
chopped onion
chopped celery
frozen spinach
allspice
chili flakes
AND (just because)
this very italian mugolio pine syrup – i could have used brown sugar but i had this and well, on a whim in it went. i had recently bought it, tried it and was a little unsure of how i would ever use it. i love market hall foods but this particular product didn’t have quite the kick i had hoped for. in all fairness it’s just as they describe – a honey like syrup with pine overtones. whereas i was thinking more pine in the forefront.

served over a nutty brown rive, everyone really loved this. it was unlike what i usually do – which was a nice change.

i suppose the beauty of this food is that it is supremely healthy and i always use whatever is in my cupboard and the draws of my fridge. i never go to the market to shop for my next pot of beans. they just become whatever they were meant to be on that day.

oh, and did i mention the cannellini’s that are soaking in my kitchen right now?

yes, cicerchie. i know. you’ve probably never heard of it. well perhaps you have. but it was certainly new to me. a google search tells me that it dates back from roman times and was a common dish of peasants.. luckily i came across a package of these and now i am thinking that they’re perhaps my most favorite pulse ever. it’s like a wild garbanzo did it with an ear of corn – or something. maybe the field pea was involved too. i really don’t know, i wasn’t there. but this humble bean is absolutely wonderful – and ridiculously hard to come by.

in umbria a hunk of pig fat is traditionally used to prepare this dish. but i resisted using instead my best umbrian olive oil. i’m an avid fan of umbria. on my last trip to italy i spent a lot of time in assisi and orvieto and montefalco and spello… hill town after hill town, we spent time exploring – and eating. and i grew to love the region that is often overlooked by tourists in favor of the more popular tuscany. but the food in umbria really is spectacular and the olive oil, which many consider to be better than what you might find in tuscany, is comparably scarce in this country.

while on the subject of perhaps the one ingredient that i could not live without, one of my favorite olive oils comes from liguria. it’s smoother, if not gentler and more luxurious than the bold tuscans. if it were an actor it might win best supporting role. ligurian olive oil allows the other flavors of the food to shine through with just enough of the rich olive flavor to remind you just who it is…oh but that’s another post. – and most likely it will involve pesto…

i soaked the cicerchie overnight and gently boiled them for about 40 minutes with 4 fat garlic cloves, adding some salt at the end. i chopped and steamed some swiss chard, sliced some grape tomatoes, despriged some thyme and tossed it all together with salt and pepper. i wanted it to remain simple. i wanted to really get to know this bean. ok, is that weird? maybe it’s weird.

but if you really want to hear something weird, get this:

so i’m reading the ny times last sunday morning and in the style section the cover story is about gwyneth paltrow and her lifestyle website called goop (tag line = nourish the inner aspect = hee). as one might expect there are lovers and there are haters and well, i’m pretty much switzerland. whatever gwynne does is fine with me. i like her and i have decided to not hold a grudge against her, bittman or mario regarding the debacle "on the road again". i have let go of my disgust because i am trying to be more like ‘the buddha’. but anyway here’s what i read… mario, yes, our mario batali, gwynne’s bff, at the very end of this lengthy article, comments about her cooking saying "she has a great sense of proportion, which gives her food a natural balance."

and then the coffee squirted out my nose…

dear readers? is it me?

and they’re completely unrelated. but i thought i’d give you two for the price of one. because i believe that you deserve two – if only because i am the slacker of all food bloggers and have miserably fallen down on my posting. and because neither dish photographed all that well. and perhaps mostly because time somehow disappears and i’ve no idea where it goes…

today is a completely lovely day in middle tennessee and well, i sold my car by accident and the new one’s not here yet (or even close) so i am housebound with the ‘amazing growing puppy’ and two pissed off cats. meaning, i need to write, if only as a diversion to my current state of affairs. and ummm, if any one wants to come to my house and take me shopping, that would be super.

so anyway, these are for you and really, they were both excellent.

below we have my adaptation of a gordon ramsey recipe from his book ‘healthy appetite’ which i dearly love due to the fact that the recipes are interesting AND light. so even if his own personal goose is getting cooked right now, i’m still a fan. he is without a doubt a great chef. but gordon? perhaps you shoulda killed ‘em with some kindness afterall, as your karma might be messing with you…

regardless, the scallops were wonderful. peas and lima beans (both frozen) with a lot of mint and a hint of butter, the perfect bed to rest 3 scallops upon, seared with fresh thyme. gordon called for fava beans, not lima’s – and fresh shelled peas. but i don’t have to fear ‘the ramsey’ getting all up in my face, so the executive bean decision was – lima.

fyi – the scallops were NOT burned they were just deeply colored rendering them unattractive yet delicious

and this is a staple around here. greens (turnip this time although usually lacinato kale) and beans (rancho gordo – cannellini’s) with a dose of good red wine vinegar and olive oil, accompanied by copious amounts of rosemary and garlic – topped with a poached egg. and this is really just very, very damn good.

fyi – this totally tasted so much better than it looks here…

lately my food has been simple. even more so than usual. we’re eating things like whole wheat pasta with my own tomato sauce. the current blend is made with heirlooms grown in canadian hot houses, thrown in a blender and then added to a saute of olive oil with garlic, an anchovy, capers and red chile flakes with just a touch of sugar for balance and a few black kalamata olives. 5 big shrimp thrown on top work quite nicely. and then i have most certainly become a vegetable roasting fool. the last batch was portabella’s with eggplant, fennel and red bell peppers – served up with a grilled bison steak. so this is what i’ve eaten lately. not terribly exciting. but really good and wholesome. there is no cheese to speak of, no cream, minimal butter or (sob) bacon, no real desserts – and portions are definitely on the smaller side. yet somehow i am surviving. and i feel better already.

and THEN there are my guilty pleasures because i am ONLY HUMAN and i thought i would tell you what fills in the blanks these days:

(in no particular order)

• laughing cow low fat cheese wedges – 35 processed calories = a hunk of creamy spreadable cheese
• acai juice – 1/2 cup per day. which tastes almost like someone got funky chocolate on my funky raspberries
• diet dr. pepper – one a day. my fave besides dr. browns diet cream soda
• very lightly buttered toast with marmite and a cup of tea – i love this…
• sparsely spread peanut butter with june taylor’s blood orange marmalade
• amy’s frozen dinners – especially their ‘veggie loaf’ and ‘rice macaroni and cheese’ and well, i’ve been eating these for a long time…
• imagine’s boxed soups – butternut squash and creamy tomato (not proud)
• very little pieces of good dark chocolate with an espresso

for the record, my 1000 calories a day is looking much more like 1150. when i can stay at 1000 i am pleased with myself – but yes, it’s a tough number to adhere to. i’m on week 4 and i’m down about 6 lbs. i won’t lose much more than 1.5 a week (age and lack of exercise) but as long as i stay the course, i’ll be fine before too long. it’s still about 4 more solid months of me being ON IT. then i can loosen up a bit.

(i keep eyeing my spring clothes tucked away in the corner of my closet. one very pretty little pale overpriced grey dress in particular…)

i used tilapia. o’charley’s perpetual "catch of the day". and really,  it’s a nothing kind of fish. farmed. not terribly exciting, yet i buy it all the time. tilapa is inexpensive. you can’t seem to overcook this fish. it crisps up with minimal oil. and it goes well with almost anything and everything. it’s definitely not the fish you have a fling with, it’s the one you marry. i have flings with, say, chilean sea bass – expensive and rich. but tilapia is your everyday fish. you can totally count on tilapia.

so my latest greatest is to chop up a fennel bulb and throw it in a pan with 2 teaspoons of oil and get it all browned up. i added minced garlic and some capers – an anchovy would work nicely too, and then a minute later some chopped fresh tomatoes (good canned are an option). and oregano. i love oregano. it’s right up there with thyme as my favorite herb. and rosemary. and basil. anyway, just season that up, add a bit of water, cook it down for a few minutes and put it on top of whatever’s going. fish. chicken. pork chops. pasta. italian sausage, giant lima beans… then add a few good olives. the fennel frond garnsh was for you – because i care. especially after the beige food assault of ’09.

while adhering to ‘the plan’, not only do i count every calorie but i weigh everything. because i am neurotic that way and because i secretly kind of like it. i realize this eccentric ‘production’ isn’t for everyone but i can’t impress upon you enough how effective it is. i am trying to set myself up for success. because failure is just not an option. speaking of which, do you remember when wynonna went on oprah, all "i need to put myself on my list because i do sooooo much for my fans and family that i have no time to eat right even though i have a personal chef and trainer on staff"? it just wasn’t pretty on so very many levels. (personally, i think she left oprah’s studio and her first stop was shoney’s… bless her heart. (fyi – this is what they say in the south.))

i often make this for dinner even with fennel at $4 a bulb. and hey, by the way, is it me or are ‘whole foods’ produce prices out of control? anyway, the good news is that you get everything on that plate for in the neighborhood of 375 calories – and that right there is a caloric bargain. and c’mon. you gotta admit. that’s awesome…

UPDATE!!! THIS JUST IN:

Farm-raised tilapia has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, but high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, new research shows. Researchers say this combination could be dangerous for some patients with conditions including heart disease, arthritis, asthma and other allergic and auto immune diseases.

The study is in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Senior study author Dr. Floyd H. Chilton is quoted in the article: "If you’re in a vulnerable population such as a heart disease patient, you need to be very careful with what you’re eating, and that includes everything. But when it comes to fish, there’s not a more important thing you can do for heart disease than eat the right type of fish or take dietary fish oil. There is evidence that you may harm yourself by eating the wrong kind of fish, and [farmed] tilapia and catfish are the two that fall into that category."

and now 2 complimentary puppy pics of grace at 10 weeks old on her 7th day at home. because she is just too damn cute not to show off.

(thunderous applause from the blogosphere)

ok, so maybe they’re not typically pretty. no icing or sparkles, sprinkles, jam or chocolate. just a rustic beige looking baked good that i’d take over just about any cookie ever. except perhaps a black and white, but only because somewhere in my dna i’m genetically programmed to love those.

and now, dear readers – for today’s lesson, courtesy of the wiki:  biscotti, derived from some latin word that means twice baked, were most likely prepared this way so that they could be stored for longer periods of time, particularly useful during journeys or wars.

in america, the italian term "biscotti" has been taken to refer to a specific type of biscuit, derived from tuscan cantucci, a type of hard almond-flavoured biscuits traditionally served with vin santo, probably originating from the town of prato and therefore still known as "biscotti of prato".

ok. class over.
see how we learn together? how beautiful is that?

but before we move on i must make one thing perfectly clear. MY BISCOTTI WILL NEVER EVER CONTAIN ANY BUTTER. because it would quite simply be wrong. i am a firm believer that the moment you add butter to biscotti they turn into a whole different cookie – an imposter. they are then cake-like. they’re crumbly. not crunchy. and they will then have that butter thing going on and listen, i love butter as much as you, if not more – but keep it the hell out of my damn biscotti. are we clear? i hope so because this totally matters to me. so, go ahead and put cream in your carbonara if you must, i can handle that if only barely. but no butter in the biscotti or i will be forced to talk bad about your baking decisions.

on a lighter note, every year angela and i have a tradition of getting together and baking biscotti. it’s this thing we’ve done for quite some time now although lately it translates into her doing all the work and me pouring the wine while giving my opinion as to how it should all be done and why. anyway, we have a recipe that we’ve used over time that we’ve honed – and it’s quite good. we’ve also tended towards over toasting them which makes them quite hard. but if you’re inclined to dunk, they’re perfect that way.

angela and claudia’s famous biscotti
(eat at your own dental risk)
3 3/4 cups ap flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 cups almonds, whole – toasted
1 cup chopped candied ginger pieces – optional
melted chocolate for dipping – optional

toast almonds about 12 minutes or until fragrant at 350f on baking sheets – single layer… keep an eye on them. 

in the bowl of an electric mixer (or not) fitted with the paddle attachment blend the flour, the sugar, the baking powder, and the salt until the mixture is combined well. In a small bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, the vanilla and the almond extract, add the mixture to the flour mixture, beating until a dough is formed, and stir in the almonds.

turn the dough out onto a floured surface, knead it several times, and divide it into fourths. Working on 2 large floured baking sheets, with floured hands form each piece of dough into a flattish log 11 inches long and 2 inches wide, arrange the logs at least 3 inches apart on the sheets.

bake the logs in a preheated 350f oven for about 30 minutes and let them cool on the baking sheets for at least 15 minutes. on a cutting board, cut the logs crosswise on the diagonal into 1/2" inch slices, arrange the biscotti cut sides down on the baking sheets, and bake them in a 300f oven for 10 minutes on each side, or until they are pale golden. transfer the biscotti to racks to cool.

but – our recipe is not the biscotti pictured. because this year, we used the biscotti recipe that i had found on the babbo website. it’s quite similar to ours, but this was gina depalma’s version… and well, i respect the hell out of gina depalma. so we gave her version below a go and it was excellent.

almond biscotti
adapted from babbo ristorante – by gina depalma

gina’s recipe calls for 6 cups of nuts which is how they’re pictured above. but when i made them a second time i brought it down to 4 cups. it really just depends on how you want them. both quantities work. i also omitted the anise seed, using other add-ins. one log had candied ginger, one had candied citron peel and another had candied orange peel. we left the 4th plain.

3 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
4 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 Tbl. amaretto
4 cups coarsely chopped whole almonds

in a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
in a large bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until light, about 2 minutes; the mixture will look somewhat curdled. beat in the vanilla and amaretto. beat in the dry ingredients, then the chopped nuts.

preheat the oven to 325 degrees. lightly grease two heavy cookie sheets, or line with parchment paper. divide the dough into four portions. on a lightly floured board, shape each portion into a flat log, just about the length the cookie sheet. place two rolls on each cookie sheet. bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the logs are lightly golden brown, firm to the touch and just beginning to crack slightly.

allow the logs to cool on the cookie sheet until cool to the touch, about 40 minutes. reduce the oven temperature to 200 degrees. with a serrated knife, slice the biscotti, slightly on the bias, into ½-inch slices. lay the slices on the cookie sheets in single layer; return the biscotti to the oven and cook for 20 more minutes, or until the biscotti are toasted and crisp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the ginger version is our automatic annual biscotti. sometimes we half dip them in chocolate, sometimes we don’t. the citron really needed some lemon zest and in place of the amaretto, limoncello would work nicely here to brighten them up a bit. the citron kind of got lost amidst the vanilla extract and the amaretto. angela swore that the candied orange peel biscotti tasted like fruit loops and well, i’m not sure what to say about that except that she was thinking that was a bonus and i was hoping it wasn’t so.

as for me, i loved them all.

but again, these are my kind of cookie…

since i believe in the law of averages, and my last post was a novella (bless those of you that read…), i give to you the grilled peach in 100 words.

i sat these georgia beauties cut side down in some olive oil and then sprinkled them with a good flakey salt. after a trip to the grill, my peaches were dressed with creme fraiche, tasmanian honey and some pan toasted almonds.  because it’s what was here. 

it seems like all the cool people are using mascarpone and pistachios.  but let me tell you, this was truly not shabby. 

at all.

(inspired by proud italian cook)

              

my rss feeder broke.  and i didn’t realize it for 3 months.  mostly because i (still) don’t even understand what exactly an rss feeder is, or what it does – talk about being oh so techno savvy… but my stat’s were dropping off and well, try as i might to just ignore the cold hard numbers, i started to take it personally.  was it something i said?  something i cooked?  where did so many of my bleaders go and why would they leave me after all we have meant to each other? 

but before i called my therapist, i called mark from simpler computing! and he quickly came to my rescue – again.  thank you mark.  you solved the mystery and now once again you are so totally my blero. 

so listen up – all you techno losers out there that just like to cook and write and take a little photo here and there, but do not want to bother your pretty little heads with html and templates and embedding and wordpress editors that suck and the like, call mark.  today.  he can tweak your blog into submission.  AND he likes to cook… (btw – ceF is still under construction as i type so please bear with…)

speaking of liking to cook… here’s the deal.  i cook a lot.  but sometimes it’s just dinner.  and sometimes it’s not my idea of a blog worthy post.  and usually it’s just that i’m too lazy to write.  but it’s totally me, not you.  you, i adore.  you make my life better, adding an entirely new fangled dimension that did not exist just 16 months ago. but still, i am often unmotivated, or perhaps even more often than that, i’m just reading OPB’s…

so what happens is that some of these dishes fall by the blogosphere’s wayside.  but i thought since we were dealing with feeds and feeding, i’d show you what gets fed around here to my immediate world.  so i’m going to hit you with a fair few of what i’ve not bothered to bother you with until now, along with some pictures. take a deep breath – here goes…

look familiar?  this one was made with the half and half, as per ripert’s recipe.  was it better?  yes.  did i LOVE it?  not so much.  it’s ok.  kinda brunchy, not desserty.  i like custard.  life is good.  and eric, you’re totally cool and sexy and hot and all those things.  but my tony still has you beat, big time. i hope you can understand…

ok so i realize i am blogger #4721 to make jim lahey’s no knead bread.  but i did it.  quietly.  and it was a good and crusty loaf of bread that if nothing else looked very, very impressive. 

i baked it in my romertopf that i dug out and dusted off.  although it stays unused and because it looks so beautiful – i keep it.  i’m sure you understand such things.  so, i soaked the terracotta in water and then baked the bread as per the direction for a dutch oven.  i felt my dutch oven was too big and i didn’t want a 2" high bread.  somehow, this worked out quite nicely.  so take a chance, dear readers – bake no knead bread.  oh, and have i made this again since?  nope.  will i?  maybe, probably not.

this was made quite awhile ago.  it was panko encrusted chicken livers served over what i think was swiss chard and finely sliced ‘delightful tiny purple potatoes’ and shallots sautéed with pimm’s and port.  what?  you think they may not have been tiny and delightful?  you are sooooo wrong….

i present to you… delightful. tiny. purple. potatoes.  i only wish i could have been in the room when the marketing team thought of that.  can you imagine what the discussion would have sounded like?  i only know they were republicans with bad haircuts.  after that, i know nothing.

so now you ask, what the hell is that?  that, my dear readers is a watermelon salad with mint leaves, chili oil and feta – topped with a very anti-locavore piece of barramundi from costco via australia.  in a previous life i lived down under (husband #1) and ate this fish regularly.  perhaps i didn’t need to sit the barramundi on top of the watermelon, but it seemed like a good idea at the time… and it was our dinner that night and we were happy enough.  so stop smirking.  thank you.

i made this last weekend and it was good and rich and saucy and chicken thighey – all that with trofie pasta thrown in for very good measure.  it’s what patricia wells eats when she’s at home in provence, a recipe that i picked up from feeding groom.  oh and it’s got sherry vinegar and garlic cloves and dijon mustard and lots of tarragon and minced sundried tomatoes… it’s more wintry than it is septembery in nashville, but i had 4 chicken thighs in the freezer and suddenly this just happened…

ok are you ready to hear what this was supposed to be?  what it almost was… what i wished it might have been and what it could be if i ever decide to take it on again?  salted butterscotch pudding with chocolate covered bacon.  thank you and goodnight.  the end.  by claudia. 

except it never really thickened properly.  and benton’s bacon is crazy salty.  so salty that i forgot just how salty it was therefore making it an out and out wrong bacon choice.  because it seems that is actually possible.  to make a wrong bacon choice.  you’d think not, but what this dessert needed was a thin cut good bacon that crisps up in a curly, artsy strip, and only then could it be dipped into lindt chocolate and put into a pudding recipe that WORKS.  because this recipe did not.  and another blogger tried it and it didn’t work for her either.  so. oh well,  we all drank our pudding and chucked the wayyy too salty pork.  seemed sinful but we got over it.  we lived and learned, moving onwards and upwards – with the comforting knowledge that bacon rarely ever lets you down…

so not even a little pretty.  AND the wrong color bowl.  but it was just a simple dinner of fresh crowder peas with bacon.  the bacon did just as it should, redeeming itself from the previous mishap.  there was something else served with this but really, i have no idea… i think it was grilled tilapia.  unexciting, quick and easy and not exactly memorable – but hey, not every night can be foie gras…

OK – EVERYBODY STAND UP AND STRETCH.  NO REALLY.  BECAUSE I AM NOT DONE.  BATHROOM BREAK?  GO ON.  I’LL WAIT….

oh, hi, you’re back.  wonderful, because i was worried… ok, just a few more…

this was lazzaroli’s sweet potato and ricotta ravioli.  i dressed it up with a side of kale, done in a sauce of olive oil, cream, honey and sage, and then dusted the pasta with nutmeg and parmegiano.  again – super fast and easy.  (tommy noodles, you are a nashville godsend… thank you for giving me an option that is first rate and still allows me to get creative.)

yes, i too jumped on the bandwagon thanks to michelle from thursday night smackdown and all the rest of you that grilled the hell outa a bunch of pizzas…  except michelle was the one who took my call on a saturday night so i could get very specific information about the whole pizza grilling process.  this particular pizza was taken from her post and it was damn fine.  i cooked down some swiss chard in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and used copious amounts of minced garlic and ricotta.  i also sliced up a big ripe yellow tomato with red stripes running through it (we will miss you beautiful heirloom tomatoes),

awesomeness, no?  well yes – but… from here on in i’ll stick to the pizza stone with my oven set to broil and 550f… because grilled pizza is too damn white on top.  and flipping it before the toppings go on doesn’t allow the cheese and sauce to bake into the dough and well, my grill runs hot (it’s infrared) so even on the lowest setting it never got the top brown and i kept having to turn the flame on and off so as not to scorch the bottom and was nervously moving it to the top rack and well, i like my pizza stone in my oven.  so if i had a real charcoal grill which i don’t and do not plan on getting because it’s too much work and i am not willing (go on – think of me what you will but there are extenuating circumstances… like a boyfriend who is also happy with oven baked pizza’s), maybe that would be better.  but as it stands, and i repeat – i am a pizza in the oven kinda gal – set to broil on super high heat with the stone on the very bottom rack.  but i made the obligatory grilled pizza.  yes i did.

i present to you… voodoo mac and cheese

do you read gild the (voodoo)lily?  if not, you need to read gild the (voodoo)lily…  heather is very smart and very funny and this bitch can cook.  and i mean that in a good way.  heather is another one of those foodcentric people that seriously knows how to put ingredients together.  like if you turned your pantry over to her, she’d blow your mind.  and you’d be thinking all, why didn’t i think of that?… and the answer is because she KNOWS MORE THAN YOU DO.  plus she’s a botanist.  a freakin’ botanist... so she’s always growing and foraging and well, it’s a little bit intimidating.  heather could totally kick your ass and never even touch you…

anyway, back in july she made something called garden mac.  for her it was merely a ‘clean your fridge out’ kinda dinner, and i’m thinking – mac and cheese with roasted tomatoes in a bechamel base?  sign me the hell up. 

the ingredients i used were as follows; mostaccioli pasta, the 4 cheeses were – asiago, parmigiano reggiano, st jerome and fontal.  and for the garden part – fresh thyme and heirloom tomatoes, kale, onion, squash and zucchini.  i drove all the ingredients about an hour south, down to my friend shannon’s house and we spent the day cooking and drinking wine and talking and laughing and then we sat out on the porch overlooking her farm and had a late lunch…

and for the grand finale i give to you an extremely abbreviated version of my veal stock mission…

bones arrive from snook’s.  i tried for weeks to find a local source.  nada.

20 lbs.

because i am awesome…

i made brown and white stock.  i followed the ruhlman way.  it is the only way. (great version here)

otherwise when you die, you go to culinary hell where you are forced to live on nothing but shoney’s buffets. (please click on the shoney’s link.  there are no words…)

and hey, thanks so much for reading.  i realize this post was a commitment. 

you can go now…

i just read that ‘nothing piques the passion of the seasonally obsessed chef like ramps‘.  they have a short season and a cult following, and rightly so.  these baby wild leeks boast a sweet but complex taste that falls somewhere between onions and garlic only much better.  much much better…

and hey, lest i digress…  could someone out there explain the whole fiddlehead fern phenomenon.  like what is the big deal?  i’ve had them prepared numerous ways by those in the know, and in a word?  meh.  with a capitol, meh.  so when ff’s show up, the only real good news is that then it must also be ramp season.  and that right there? that is something to get excited about.  so much so that i hereby declare ramps the new black.  that’s how much i love them.  which is a lot.

while some of you are out there foraging for your ramps, nettles, morels and ff’s, let it be known that i am sans poison ivy and tick free.  i’m home drinking a glass of wine and clicking the ’buy it now’ button on ebay where i am declared a winner of 50 freshly harvested ramps, and ebay sincerely congratulates me.  i toast my good fortune to the food gods and put up my feet, pleased that ebay recognizes my winning ways.  it may be true that i’ve just spent $11 and increased my carbon footprint, wheras the foragers got both their ramps and their lyme disease for free… but i’m ok with all of this.  because first and foremost i am a winner.

so thank you seller camper750.  they were just beautiful…

see?  ramp perfection… at my door in no time flat.  the bowl was ebayed too, but from last year.

the plan was to make a perfect risotto.  i came across a ny magazine recipe from 2005 of famed chef scott conant, from when he was at l’empero in nyc.  i immediately knew that this was what i was looking for.

ramp risotto
adapted from scott conant (soon to be at ‘scarpetta‘)

i doubled this recipe and it worked out beautifully.  i used carnaroli rice but i am sure any risotto rice would work fine.  i substituted my veal stock for the chicken and well, i highly recommend this if you can…

5 T extra-virgin olive oil
10 ramps
1 shallot, ?nely chopped
1 t of red-pepper ?akes
1 cup vialone nano rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken broth, simmering in separate pot on stove
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated
salt to taste

in a wide, heavy-bottom saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat.  

finely chop ramp greens and stalks, reserving greens for later. add shallot, ramp stalks, and pepper ?akes, and stir until the shallot is translucent, about two minutes. add rice to pot and cook over medium heat for two minutes, stirring to coat rice with oil.  

pour in 1/4 cup of the wine and boil until almost absorbed; a little liquid should remain on top of the rice. add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of hot broth at a time, stirring the rice constantly until almost all of the liquid is absorbed. add another 1/4 cup of stock, the remaining wine, and a tablespoon of olive oil, continuing to stir.  

add the ramp greens and more stock as needed and continue cooking and stirring until the risotto looks creamy but is still al dente, about 20 minutes. remove from heat and let the risotto stand for about 30 seconds. add a drizzle of olive oil, butter, and cheese; stir until well combined. season with salt. makes 4 first-course portions.

to serve with the risotto, i roasted a chicken alla ‘zuni cafe’ style, except i stuffed the cavity with lemon and limes, something i’d never done before.  i think the citrus caused some steam in an otherwise very dry oven environment, making the chicken perhaps less crisp but amazingly flavorful.  i buy only small chickens – no more than 3.25 lbs - and roast at 475 f for 45 minutes.

the trussing technique was "unique" and could not be repeated for any price.  but you can rest assured that bird wasn’t going anywhere.

this risotto was a first class wow.  to be honest, we kind of couldn’t get over just how good it was.  throughout the day it was eaten by 5 people and it greatly influenced their opinion of me.  ramps are an impressive ingredient.  they’re so many things all at once.  if you missed them this year, try to make it a point for next.

although i do believe camper750 still has some available.  act fast and you too could be a winner…
 

here on the day after the last day of october, and for the record, let me just put forth that i am the halloween grinch, which more or less goes with my overall dislike for kids.  ok ok – all you great folks out there with beloved children… i’m just not the one dying to hold your baby or smile at your tantrum throwing toddler – especially in a restaurant or at 35,000 feet.  but before you jump on me, i happen to have raised one great and impressive (step) kid and i am in love with one particular 5 year old who calls me “granclaud”.  so i’ve not led a totally kid-less life.  plus my boyfriend comes with not one, but two rather appealing tweens that i’m quite partial to.  still, overall i don’t like kids much. i just like certain individual people who i’ve come to know and respect – who happen to be under the legal drinking age.

i (happily) live on a road that does not allow for trick-or-treaters.  it’s trafficky and i’ve got a very long and winding driveway that goes way up into the woods. so last night, safe from the barrage of cuteness i made dinner for some friends. 

i’m still on my ‘eating down the house’ kick.  so last night’s dinner was in keeping with what was available to me within the current confines of my pantry and my fridge/freezer.  a quick trip to the market for a head of garlic and some shallots – along with a 4 pack of mediocre mini bottles of pinot grigio for cooking – and i was set.  my dessert required a 14 oz. container of whole milk and a baguette so i grabbed those too.  oh, but that’s worthy of a whole other post…

i had searched the freezer to see what meat i had in stock and i began defrosting 4 very large locally produced, super organic chicken breasts from ‘west wind farms‘.  then in my mind i assembled the ingredients and decided to bake the breasts due to their sheer size and proceeded down a mediterranean path.  i had a few naked lemons in my egg tray that had been zested for a batch of gremolata and they needed to be used stat.  i chopped a few large shallots, used some wonderful dried-on-the-vine oregano from sicily, added some lemon juice and finely sliced rind -  as well as thinly sliced lemons that were peeled of their nearly 2 week old hardened pith.  (hey it’s lemon in nearly every form imaginable!)  then salt, pepper and a mini bottle of pinot grigio and into the oven it all went.

i baked the chicken at 400 for about 30 minutes or so.  then i broiled them for a few extra minutes to slightly brown the skin a bit more.  they came out great.  not dry.  thank god.  dry chicken breasts are the worst.  it seems to always be a crap shoot for me with bone-in chicken breasts.  i also used the cooked shallot and lemon mixture when i plated everything.  it was way too good to toss.  i especially loved the thin slivers of lemon rind.

while all that was going on i opened a bag of moretti polenta from market hall foods.  the bramata polenta is a coarse yellow flour that takes about 40 minutes of nearly constant stirring.  when it was close to done i added a very buttery spanish olive oil that i have become quite attached to and a large handful of finely chopped parmigiano, both from zingerman’s.  the polenta was sublime.  cary commented that he could live on just that.  for like forever.

and the last element on this plate was quickly executed.  i already had a big leftover bag of the 3 mixed greens that i had used in my sweet potato stew.  about 5 cloves of garlic were minced and then added to some italian olive oil and the chopped greens went in about a minute later along with a bit of water and a cover on the pan to steam them down.  the trick here is not to burn the garlic even a little, hence the use of the water which disappears.  it’s my own little method and it works for me.

not a sexy plate of food.  but a hearty autumn dinner that worked out just like it was supposed to.  and that right there for me is a big deal.

i’ll take a little fleeting success in any form.

eating down the house.  continued…

i read a fair few blogs and am constantly inspired by these people who understand food so well.  it certainly makes cooking easier on me.  tonight i riffed off one of my all-time fave blogs, smitten kitchen and enlisted a touch of help from minimally invasive (orange zest/pimenton = wow).

i bought one large yellow onion along with 3 organic valencia oranges for zest.  everything else was in the house.

i sauteed the one big onion and the last of my small ones in some olive oil.  when they were about to brown i added the chopped sweet potatoes, the last of my fresh sage, the zest of 3 oranges, niman ranch chorizo sausage, and a mixture of turnip, red russian kale and collard greens along with a litre of chicken broth – in no particular order.  i salt and peppered to taste and then added some (magic) sweet smoked pimenton.

the sweet potatoes and greens were all from my csa.  i used quite a bit of both.  but somehow, i still have more…  they are reproducing overnight.  like rabbits.

it was a one pot meal.  and really, this was so good.  but so very, very good.  in fact, surprisingly excellent.  a bonafide winner!

i’d love to go on about it some more but i am tired and have to wake up early…

(yawn)

ps – i can’t say it was a stoup.  i just can’t…  way too rachel ray on the lingo for me.

i buy food.  often.  esoteric ingredients are my game.  a real chef would love my pantry but i’m just a mere wannabe.  yet i continue to believe that if i own all these potential elements of a dish that i will be able to transform my meals into something extraordinary.  you see, when it comes to cooking, i’m not big on technique.  so instead i try to go big on the understanding of flavors – as in what works together.  i’m constantly on the quest for what exists out there in the culinary universe that will blow me away.  having said all that, i’ve come to the realization that my pantry is out of control. and i was thinking that if i didn’t shop for anything but obvious perishables for awhile that i would be forced to use what i already have.  why, i could make it a challenge…  i love a good challenge…  ok claudia, you’re on!

excellent!  who knew this would be so easy?

so to begin with, last night’s dinner was nothing more than a no-brainer exercise of what was going on in my fridge/freezer.  i defrosted a pound of ‘raw, peeled w/tail on’ tiger shrimp from plumgoodfood.com, consistently the best source of shrimp that i have found in this town.  i chopped up a bunch of mustard greens that still looked pretty damn good from last saturday’s csa haul.  and then i used my leftover cooked farro, chopped tomatoes and a healthy dollop of gremolata along with two of delvin’s beautiful chili peppers, finely minced.  one pan.  no mess.  no fuss.  and better yet, no guilt due to no waste.  (my grandmother used to kiss the stale bread before she threw it away, although i’m sure if it was challah it was french toast on sunday morning…)

this was not a to-die-for dinner that i’d have served at a gathering.  the mustard greens were actually a bit sharp and over-powering for this quasi – italian dish. but they existed in my immediate universe and i refused to run out for the more well matched rapini or spinach.  and in less than 15 minutes from start to finish we were eating pretty wholesome and healthy stuff.  and i, in my own grand way of thinking found myself saying out loud - this so doesn’t suck.

saw it.  had to do it.  and it’s so not about me except to say that i followed directions, barely veering – and if i may say, i did a bang up job.

for any and all info please go and visit the woman who once again made it all possible – jennifer of ‘last night’s dinner‘. 

i used the niman ranch sweet italian sausage which are to my delight readily available at my local supermarket, albeit already cooked.  skinned and chopped, they worked just beautifully.  i also used a pretty good pile of regular finely minced garlic, as scapes down south were (sadly) so two months ago…  for the wine i used a really nice sancerre which was almost a sin, but it’s what i was drinking that evening and i recently ran out of my bottle of noilly prat.  i drink so infrequently these days that if i’m pouring a glass, it’s got to blow my mind.  i’m on a sancerre kick which is somewhat unfortunate as it appears the price of these wines have recently escalated.  $25 at the very minimum for a decent bottle.  damnittohell.  cary bought me two excellent bottles a few weeks back and i’ve been hoarding them.  one almost down, one to go…

this dish is a huge shot of flavor.  the richness of the sausage, the bitterness of the rapini, the sharp bite yet smooth texture of the pecorino and the deep tomato flavor all add up to a major taste sensation. 

and the testament of how superb this pasta dish is was that the two kids cleaned their plates.

green stuff and all.

there are so many great blogs around - no doubt.  and we all have our favorites, our top few that we peruse on a regular basis.  i’m still new to this world and it amazes me on a regular basis just who’s out there.  it’s kind of like finding your tribe…

one of my current cooking guru’s is a woman who has a blog called  ‘last night’s dinner’.  jennifer’s food resonates with me.  i believe that she’s the real deal.  she gets it in a big way.  in a way i still don’t, but aspire to – one day.  so in the meantime i often use her as a guide.  and the dinner i made last night from her ‘tomato mania’ post was surprisingly excellent.  when i say surprising it’s because when i read the recipe i knew i’d like it but when it hit the table, it was a knock-out.  one bite and i was back in italy. 

it’s so damn hot in nashville right now that even the thought of boiling water is somewhat unpleasant.  but my closest friends were coming to dinner and i wanted to make something wonderful for them.  they’re in the midst of building quite the home as well as selling their current place – and quite frankly they are whupped.  so if not for them, then for who?  and out came the pasta pot. 

after friday night’s steak experience i opted to go meatless and stay frugal.  i already had all the ingredients on hand although i did pick up 2 pints of heirloom cherry tomatoes at the farmer’s market.

as an appetizer – and i forgot to photograph it – i finally used the okra from my csa haul.  for the past month or so i’ve been guiltily watching it go bad and then throwing it away, if only out of sheer ignorance of what to do with it.  so i got the oven up to 450 degrees, spread the okra on a cookie sheet with a little olive oil, salt and pepper – and roasted it for about 15 minutes – moving them around every 5 or so.  they were REALLY good.  kinda like french okra fries.  i served them with some ‘stokes blushed tomato mayonnaise’, a truly great mayo that was recommended to me by the good folks at ‘fork & bottle‘.  as per their suggestion, next time i make lobster rolls i’m forgoing the hellman’s no matter what laurent tourondel says.

oh and jennifer… i swear i am a well adjusted person and that i will never stalk you. 

this saturday’s csa haul

i soaked, i rinsed. 

i rinsed. 
i rinsed. 
i rinsed. 
i rinsed.

and lookey here. 

i love michael chiarello. i want to live in napa and be his good friend. i want to knock on his door on the occasional afternoon, asking to snip a few herbs from his garden and then casually be invited to dinner. he’d love me, i just know it. his restaurant tra vigne in st. helena absolutely blew me away. i went 4 years ago and the whole vibe there was wonderful. great food with a kicked back ambiance. very napa. very what could be me in another chapter…

but in the meantime i watch him from afar. i’m not a food network kinda gal but i tivo michael’s show "easy entertaining" concentrating specifically on the easy parts as i am unlikely to make my own ravioli’s any time soon.

he claims this dish to be from northern italy and i’ve no reason not to believe him. i watched it on his show yesterday and i’ve made it from memory tonight. i love pasta and this had a totally different take – something new and different. i like that in a dish.

boil a pot of water – add salt, throw in about 2 lbs of rapini that’s been stemmed and roughly chopped blanch for a minute or two and remove to a bowl. add 1 lb. of spaghetti to the rapini water and cook 5 minutes – halfway to done drain and put in a bowl – reserving some pasta water pour a bottle of zinfandel and a teaspoon of sugar into a large saute pan. bring to a boil and add the half cooked spaghetti, finishing it off in the pan. the wine will boil off after about 5 minutes or so, but leave it slightly wet. put the pasta into another bowl. add olive oil – about 1/3 of a cup to the saute pan. then add 2 tablespoons of minced garlic and crushed red chili pepper flakes to taste. when the garlic just starts to turn color, add the rapini to the pan and saute for a minute or two adding salt and pepper. then add the pasta and about 3/4 cup of grated parmegiano. toss it thoroughly and lightly grate some more cheese over the top. serve right from the pan.

it’s very good…

blogging is time consuming. not only are you busy documenting what you’re up to, there are all these other great blogs to discover. so while browsing through the masses i came across this pasta dish. what i found interesting was that the same thing had happened to that blogger. she too had come across this recipe on some other site. so as far as i know this is it’s third appearance in blogland.i’m drawn to very summery food. and i am currently in my ‘greens’ phase. but i am always in my ‘simplicity is best’ phase – so this was very appealing to me. put the pasta on to boil, and saute the following in olive oil: leeks for 5 minutes then add the radicchio for 3 minutes followed by the endive for another 3 minutes toss the greens with the pasta adding balsamic vinegar and a good amount of grated parmegiano along with salt and pepper for some reason i decided i’d substitute fresh lemon juice for the balsamic vinegar. it was nice but somewhat uninteresting. so i added the vinegar and it definitely gave it a whole other much needed dimension . so my particular recipe had both acids which luckily worked out for me although next time i’ll just use the balsamic. for the record, these days i use rao’s balsamic unless i’m drizzling. it’s about $18 and worthy – and i can buy it in my neighborhood. the parmegiano was ordered from zingerman’s. sometimes you’ve just got to pay the shipping and get on with your life…

it’s fun and overwhelming all at once. tatsoi – an asian green known down. as spinach mustard with a perfectly soft texture and great flavor, and garlic scapes – the tops of the garlic plant that one might discard were they not in the know – sauteed with freshly harvested shitakes. really really good. i just sauteed the mushrooms with the chopped scapes in some olive oil and a touch of salt and after a few minutes added the tatsoi with some water to steam it all

put that next to just about anything.