buddha contemplating the magnificence of this bradley tomato. no suffering here…

one of the pluses about living in the south in the summer is that i get tomatoes before all the other yankees do. by june we begin seeing a few beauties at the farmers market and by july, well it’s bounty season. (and yes, i’m well aware that there will be times when this very fact will give me little to no consolation, but right now i’m pretty happy about it.)

i’ve not been home much over the last months but now that i’m here my shopping is done exclusively at the farmers market with hardly a trip anywhere else to buy anything foodlike. i live mostly off of eggs, berries, melons, zucchini, corn, greens, tomatoes, some grass fed beef and pastured chickens and this one particular whole grain seedy bread that i’ve grown to love. between us, i’m trying to lay low on the pork right now out of the desperate need to fit back into my clothes AGAIN.

oh but how i digress… the tomatoes. they are delectable. nearly magical. sprinkled just barely with just some maldon salt, and i am entranced. add a rub of garlic to some toasted bread, a hit of olive oil and some basil and it’s dinner. some buffalo mozzarella and it’s pure decadence. then put all of that on a bowl of pasta and it could fall into ‘my last supper’ category.

these salad tomatoes were grown by delvin farms and really, they’re more like candy than anything else. i keep them in this bowl and i just pop a few in my mouth whenever i go by, too well aware that soon this luxury will be behind me.

a few weeks ago in preparation for a dinner with some friends, the tomatoes were scored, blanched, shocked and peeled – about 4 lbs of these little gems – and then i seeded them and went on to make my favorite marinara of all time. we served the dish with some beautiful swordfish that was cooked to perfection with a warm bagna cauda of sorts served on top. but alas, there were no photos taken… and for this i am sad because it was quite a lovely dinner.

so dear readers, allow me to give you this repeat recipe from nearly a year ago. it’s just that good.

tomato and basil spaghetti
by scott conant of scarpetta

about 20 ripe plum tomatoes (ours were quite small so we doubled the amount)
about 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more to finish the dish
a pinch of crushed red pepper
kosher salt
black pepper, freshly ground
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 ounce parmigiano, freshly grated (about 1/2 cup)
about 7 fresh basil leaves, well washed and dried, stacked and rolled into a cylinder and cut thinly crosswise into a chiffonade
1 pound spaghetti, either high-quality dry or homemade

to peel the tomatoes: bring a large pot of water to a boil. have a large bowl of ice water nearby. cut a small x on the bottom of each tomato. ease about five tomatoes in the pot and cook, let boil for about 15 seconds, and then promptly move them to the waiting ice water. (do this with the remaining tomatoes.) pull off the skin with the tip of a paring knife. if the skin sticks, try a vegetable peeler using a gentle sawing motion. cut the tomatoes in half and use your finger to flick out the seeds.

to cook the tomatoes: In a wide pan, heat the 1/3 cup of olive oil over medium-high heat until quite hot. add the tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and season lightly with the salt and pepper. (i always start with a light hand with the salt and pepper because as the tomatoes reduce, the salt will become concentrated.) Let the tomatoes cook for a few minutes to soften. then, using a potato masher, chop the tomatoes finely. cook the tomatoes for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tomatoes are tender and the sauce has thickened. (you can make the sauce, which yields about 3 cups, ahead of time. refrigerate it for up to 2 days or freeze it for longer storage.)

to serve: bring a large pot of amply salted water to a boil. cook the spaghetti until just shy of al dente. reserve a little of the pasta cooking water. add the pasta to the sauce and cook over medium-high heat, gently tossing the pasta and the sauce together with a couple of wooden spoons and a lot of exaggerated movement (you can even shake the pan) until the pasta is just tender and the sauce, if any oil had separated from it, now looks cohesive. (if the sauce seems too thick, add a little pasta cooking liquid to adjust it.) take the pan off of the heat and toss the butter, basil, and cheese with the pasta in the same manner (the pasta should take on an orange hue) and serve immediately.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and yes. there is no garlic, there is no black pepper. just let it be, people.

just. let. it. be…

sea urchin. i’m enamored. and i have been for quite some time although it’s usually called uni and served to me over a slab of rice. well ok, not necessarily – at least not anymore. not since i had it served on a piece of lightly toasted bread, draped with the thinnest, barely warmed slice of lardo at marea in nyc. thank you chef michael white. because that right there was a most memorable bite, one that set the tone for one of my top 3 meals of ’09.

and sure, there have been a few pastas with sea urchin ordered at various restaurants (a voce, esca and marea come to mind…). and then there was that whole bourdain/ripert food porn spectacle at le bernardin… i watched that and yearned… deeply… (for both tony and the taglietelle.)

but just 3 days ago i was lucky enough to find myself in possession of two 80 gram trays of the freshest most lovely sea urchin that one might ever come across – overnighted via fedex from san diego. i nearly made that eric ripert version which is pretty much a butter sauce fortified with pureed sea urchin and then embellished with chives, espelette, parmigiano and a touch of lemon – not to mention the generous dollop of osetra… but it just seemed TOO rich. TOO heavy. not that i’m knocking it. i’m quite sure that it’s an experience unto itself and one that i plan on having at some point, but right now i’m trying to keep it light – so i begrudgingly shied away from that.

and then i found it. right in the ny times. the perfect dish…

a close up for you of one of the most wonderful things i’ve made perhaps ever… but then again i’d not eaten any pasta for nearly a solid month so it’s hard to know. regardless, i highly – but highly recommend this dish.

it blew me away.

spicy spaghettini with sea urchin and tomatoes
adapted from chef beatrice tosti of il posto accanto in nyc

makes 4 small plates

8 ounces dry spaghettini
sea salt
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, more for drizzling
6 cloves garlic, peeled
a scant 1/2 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes
12 ounces grape or cherry tomatoes, preferably organic, halved
about 2 1/2 ounces sea urchin – one standard tray
freshly grated zest of an organic lemon
small handful flat-leaf parsley leaves, freshly chopped.

bring a medium pot of well salted water to a boil over high heat. meanwhile, in a skillet large enough to later hold all the pasta, heat the olive oil over medium heat. add garlic, reduce heat to low, and slowly cook on all sides, turning often, until cloves are lightly browned and caramelized, about 10 minutes.

raise heat under skillet to medium, add chili flakes and cook, stirring, until toasted, about 2 minutes. add tomatoes and cook, turning gently, just until wilted.

when water boils, add the pasta. stir well. when pasta is cooked through but still firm, drain, reserving 1 cup cooking water.

turn heat under skillet to low. add about 3/4 of the sea urchin to skillet with a splash of pasta cooking water. add pasta to skillet and toss thoroughly but gently over low heat, adding pasta cooking water and more oil to taste if mixture is dry. taste for salt and toss in lemon zest and parsley.

serve hot, decorating each serving with remaining sea urchin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a huge shout out to catalina offshore products for supplying me with this incredible seafood. they dive for the sea urchin when the weather permits and then ship it directly to your door. it was just excellent and as fresh as it gets.

it arrives in this small, slim box surrounded by ice packs

and this right here is the beautiful golden sea urchin.
which by the way is not actually roe, they’re the gonads of both the males and females..

as in testicles and ovaries.

and dear readers after all we’ve meant to each other
i wouldn’t kid you about a thing like this…

i realize that this is old news. i mean, any tomato such as the one i used in september is sadly unattainable until three more seasons are behind us. but with all the summer clamor to make the ultimate blt from total scratch – all the while knowing that i was not in the mood to cure my locally sourced pork belly, or grow anything other than my sweet 100′s… i started to get a hefty craving for what is my second favorite sandwich.

and i did it my way – and with a clean conscience. ruhlman inspires me like no other, but as passionate as i am about my food – sometimes i can make do…

a pretty decent loaf of bread, a farmers market tomato, salty smoky benton’s bacon from right here in tennessee, some crisp romaine and my beloved hellman’s mayo.

go here to see how it’s done by the professionals. but damn if mine wasn’t just plain excellent…

(anyone care to guess what my #1 sandwich could possibly be?)

and if you think that sounds ordinary, then boy are you wrong. you’re even so wrong that you’ve got no idea just how wrong you really are. because this is scott conant’s recipe from scarpetta – and it is beyond wonderful. this plate of food along with a glass of something very worthwhile – and i am telling you, there could be nothing better. different? perhaps. but better? impossible.

the entire dish consists of 9 ingredients. including the pasta, oil, salt and pepper… the other 5 are tomatoes, basil leaves, crushed red pepper, a bit of parmigiano – and a bit of butter. but it’s the way it’s done – the simple technique that makes it superior. of course, at the end of the day it’s all in the excellence of the ingredients along with impeccable execution. thank you and good night.

and then i did something that i never do. something i’ve steadily refused to do. but i went ahead and i did it. because scott said to – and i knew there was no way around it…

i know. CRAZY right? i skinned those fuckers. despite all past declarations i went there. and i must tell you that for this dish there is just no getting around it. boil the damn water that you’ll later use for the pasta, blanch your tomatoes and then plunge them into a waiting bowl of ice water. it’s not even a deal breaker. who knew?

scarpetta’s tomato and basil spaghetti
by scott conant via ‘good morning america’

about 20 ripe plum tomatoes
about 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more to finish the dish
a pinch of crushed red pepper
# Kosher salt
black pepper, freshly ground
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 ounce parmigiano, freshly grated (about 1/2 cup)
about 7 fresh basil leaves, well washed and dried, stacked and rolled into a cylinder and cut thinly crosswise into a chiffonade
1 pound spaghetti, either high-quality dry or homemade

to peel the tomatoes: bring a large pot of water to a boil. have a large bowl of ice water nearby. cut a small x on the bottom of each tomato. ease about five tomatoes in the pot and cook, let boil for about 15 seconds, and then promptly move them to the waiting ice water. (do this with the remaining tomatoes.) pull off the skin with the tip of a paring knife. if the skin sticks, try a vegetable peeler using a gentle sawing motion. cut the tomatoes in half and use your finger to flick out the seeds.

to cook the tomatoes: In a wide pan, heat the 1/3 cup of olive oil over medium-high heat until quite hot. add the tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and season lightly with the salt and pepper. (i always start with a light hand with the salt and pepper because as the tomatoes reduce, the salt will become concentrated.) Let the tomatoes cook for a few minutes to soften. then, using a potato masher, chop the tomatoes finely. cook the tomatoes for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tomatoes are tender and the sauce has thickened. (you can make the sauce, which yields about 3 cups, ahead of time. refrigerate it for up to 2 days or freeze it for longer storage.)

to serve: bring a large pot of amply salted water to a boil. cook the spaghetti until just shy of al dente. reserve a little of the pasta cooking water. add the pasta to the sauce and cook over medium-high heat, gently tossing the pasta and the sauce together with a couple of wooden spoons and a lot of exaggerated movement (you can even shake the pan) until the pasta is just tender and the sauce, if any oil had separated from it, now looks cohesive. (if the sauce seems too thick, add a little pasta cooking liquid to adjust it.) take the pan off of the heat and toss the butter, basil, and cheese with the pasta in the same manner (the pasta should take on an orange hue) and serve immediately.

do not adapt. do not adjust. can i ask you to just follow this one AS IS? the reason being that it is simply and truly exceptional. because i know you. YES YOU. so do not omit the pepper flakes or even think of adding garlic. just let it be, people. just let it be…

scott says that ‘the key is in the finish’ so just do what the man says and you will be loved by the masses. trust me on this one. when you can make something so incredibly simple taste SO MUCH BETTER than the next guy’s tomato sauce on pasta…

that right there is totally cool. i don’t care who you are…

as an afterthought, i thought i’d share with you the dorkiest of food blogger photos that i took with my own two hands.

and then i woke up and got a life.

i mean, is that precious or what?

a sampling of some fresh picked wine berries, huckleberries and wild blackberries – a gift from my friend jack on my birthday last month

it’s not that i’m not cooking. because i am. there are gatherings of friends and just plain hungriness resulting in well, dinner. i even sometimes whip out the nikon and snap a few lame shots but these days not so much. and i’m not sure what’s come over me. but just the thought of posting on ceF was beginning to feel like ‘work’ and god only knows we wouldn’t want that to happen to a nice woman like me… after all, my lack of ambition is my greatest luxury. (i stole that line from my friend emily and have been using it ad nauseum but only because it is SO TRUE.)

but we’ve been to chicago and then i went to cleveland. dallas is this week and seattle comes next. i’m doing the 4 day cooking gig again come the first of october and then i’m off to nyc…  and all i want is to go back to italy. is that asking so much? IS IT? but honestly, i’m not complaining. it’s a charmed life. the past week or so has pretty much revolved around trips to the park in much appreciated cooler than normal temps, so after a 9 week hiatus i’m back on the bike and fighting the fat (albeit somewhat of a losing battle).

but mostly – if i could just say, i’m so deeply grateful for this amazing life that i get to live that i could cry. for those of you that read the sunday ny times magazine section yesterday, we are the fortunate ones…

ok – back to food…

presenting… a summer dinner. grilled corn with flaky maldon salt and a squeeze of lime. grilled tomatoes with thyme and a farro salad with a slightly overcooked poached egg on top. i’ve got just a vague recollection of what was in the farro salad but i’m thinking it was pequillo peppers and goat cheese – and something else but remembering is difficult…

best beans ever. rancho gordo cannellini’s with grape tomatoes, basil, thyme, lemon zest and juice, some potlikker, finely minced anchovy, a very good olive oil, salt and pepper. i think that was it but i’ve no idea because i can’t recall a damn thing.

lamb meatballs with a cherry sauce over whole wheat couscous finished with mint leaves. a lot of ingredients went into that sauce until it was nicely balanced and pretty damn impressive tasting. but i’m not sure exactly what i did – because of my memory…

all cary ever really wants for his birthday are two (2) angel food cakes with his grandmother’s ’7 minute boiled icing’. the icing becomes slightly hard on the outside and then yields to a slightly marshmallow like goo on the inside. ruhlman’s angel food cake from his bestseller ‘ratio‘, takes this cake to where it needs to go – from spongy and boring to totally delicious. in my opinion it’s all in the weighing of the flour and then using both lemon juice and vanilla. for your viewing pleasure i give you 4 pictures as they were all so awful i just couldn’t choose… this is the whitest cake in america and despite the absence of any fats and the overabundance of sugar, somehow it just works.

my icing technique is legendary. obviously.

moving on…

i phone pics before i bought the 3Gs. but this is the wonderful donnie madia pictured at his flagship restaurant blackbird. for my money, he and eduard seitan are the best restaurateurs in chicago with blackbird, avec, the publican and the newest addition, a tacqueria opening very soon. donnie’s attention to every detail is second to none with a modern sensibility that slays me, as i am highly susceptible to such things. with executive chef and partner paul kahan at the helm of the kitchen, it continues to be a recipe for greatness. we were in chicago for only 4 nights and ate at avec, then publican and then blackbird – finishing up with an anniversary dinner at tru, a gift from my mother. and for a whopping $425 that included only one glass of wine, it paled in comparison by such a long shot that i can’t even begin to explain the differences in the food except to say that in the end, blackbird kicked tru’s ass – big time. tru is supremely elegant and the room is lovely. it’s quiet and serious and the servers are ON IT. but dinner at blackbird was once again phenomenal. oh AND best negroni ever – hands down.

so, a few things… and please again – forgive the poor photo quality.

salad of endives with crispy potatoes, basil, dijon, pancetta and poached egg = sheer perfection. not kidding. this salad was incredible in every way.

chilled cuttlefish noodles with green garlic, red onion jam, trout caviar, nasturtiums and buttermilk = amazingness. i loved it.

wood-grilled california sturgeon with english peas, braised peanuts, crispy bacon and bourbon caramel = seriously impressive.

cary had the organic pork belly and crispy sweet shrimp with chinese broccoli, preserved green tomato and black pepper. he started with the pistachio gazpacho with ahi, watermelon confit, sea beans and cocoa. both were smashing.

this was my idea. sorry.

desserts were wonderful. donnie brought us three and each one was greatness. ricotta fritters with compari, rhubarb and pine nut ice cream, pistachio panna cotta with a raspberry consommé and brown butter ice cream and a torn black sesame cake with pineapple that looked a little something like this that was  – out. of. this. world…

avec, a bit more down to earth, is my favorite restaurant in all the land. and at the publican, albeit a bit on the loud side, we had an abundance of seriously excellent food. beer, oysters, fish and pork. just splendid.

chicago is such an extraordinary food town… thank you donnie.

south west of chicago. mies van der rohe’s masterpiece – the farnsworth house. i wept in its presence. it is genius if not impractical.

no tinkering with picassa was going to help this photo taken through the door of my oven. it was shredded zucchini and yellow squash with minced garlic, chiles and ricotta. i stole the idea from city house restaurant here in nashville. their’s was far better and i’m going to work on this because it was frustrating that i couldn’t replicate it. i need to call chef tandy wilson and ask for help. plus my chiles were so strong that they almost hurt. so, fail, although not in an epic way…

the project – buy 20 lbs of balaton cherries from earthy.com and use 10 to make some cherry bourbon hooch. i’ll get back to you in 6 weeks on how it turns out and if you’re on the short list, it’s what’s for christmas, so no surprises here. the other 10 lbs. became a salted cherry vanilla bean balsamic compote.

oh, and jack’s arm after blackberry picking. the things friends do for friends…

when you make something that has only 4 ingredients, that all get crushed together, with no heat applied whatsoever, what can possibly make your dish stand apart?

using pesto in your cooking, if only on occasion – is pretty much obligatory. it’s a flavor bomb. a crowd pleaser. pesto works on nearly everything one might imagine. we all like it. we all make it.

and i am here to tell you why mine is better…

1. olive oil – use ligurian. why? ligurian olive oil is not looking to overpower. it is light and fruity, unlike the more powerful tuscan and sicilian oils – and if you use a stronger, heavier, spicier oil, it’ll kill the flavor of your pesto. better to buy the light bertolli from your supermarket that tastes neutral. come to think of it, a spanish oil might work well here due to the gentler, buttery nature of those olives. regardless – think light. or just pick up some ligurian oil.

2. basil – fresh from the garden, picked minutes before using and soaked in water for a few minutes – otherwise it is too strong.

3. pine nuts – mediterranean. not chinese. these are long and slender. not the squat triangular version. they are lower in fat and higher in flavor. and they’re hard to find. and wildly expensive. but then, you’ve come to expect this of me…

4. cheese – i use mostly parmigiano, sometimes mixed with a little pecorino

this time around, i didn’t use a mortar and pestle, but i wish i had, if only to get the creamier texture. and i added some garlic – although not too much – that this saturday when i make it again, i won’t. and the pasta, the shape is called casareccia – a curving twisted tube that holds the pesto beautifully. although it’s a stellar italian dried pasta, this will be replaced with freshly home-rolled thin sheets made with a blend of ap flour, 00 flour, seriously farm fresh eggs and white wine.

the black tomatoes bought at my local farmers market the day before, were roughly chopped and thrown in raw, right on top. the pesto was thinned with some of the hot pasta water and then it all got tossed together. i regret not taking an ‘after’ shot. this dish is my kind of rustic, beautiful food.

all in all it was a perfect lunch on a sunday summer afternoon, accompanied by a wonderful bastianich rosé.

but this coming saturday night’s pesto? it might just kick this one’s proverbial ass.

stay tuned…

(the perfect pesto) <— for your viewing pleasure

ok. this was good. as in very good. as in i won’t go all yoplait ad on you, but this was another definite do-over. and the sooner the better.

i take very little credit as this plate of pasta was nothing more than a blend of: the latest post from rachel eats‘ blog, along with the addition of some murray’s cheese mail-ordered burrata. i’ve since found out – and to my surprise, that trader joe’s carries "burrata", but my obvious thoughts on that were although it’d most likely do in a pinch, there’s no way it could be even close to the same quality as these delicate cream filled mozzarella balls made in italy on monday, and at my door on wednesday…

because you deserve a closer look…

it’s hot as hell in nashville. we’re on day 10 of 90+ degrees with the usual humidity issue, and well, cooking is only so appealing. the ovens are off limits but i will boil a pot of water and saute some onions – and happily.

but here’s what i won’t do. although i preach high quality ingredients and authentic preparation, here’s another ceF ruling to go along with the whole ”i don’t do pastry crusts" thing. so now you can just go on ahead and add to that – "i don’t slip the skins off tomatoes". because honestly, it just seems SILLY. yet despite this blatant admission, i still struggle with the fact (if only ever so slightly) that this conscious oversight would be sneered upon by better cooks than me. i mean the italian nonas do things for GOOD REASON. but then i quickly rationalize the whole thing – i honestly don’t think it changes the experience. and i’m at peace with tomato skins – though i have succumbed to certain other kitchen practices such as always trussing my chickens.

adding to the list of ‘do’s', i also have claimed the red onion as my personal onion of choice for nearly all cooking purposes. i just like them better. and they look beautiful on my counter.

an important component of this dish is that you barely cook the tomatoes. for the record, mine were not home grown, as those are not quite yet available in nashville, but joyously coming soon. still, what i’d picked up at TJ’s were juicy and tomatoey. i used a fair amount of chopped basil from my herb pots, adding it the same time i added the chopped tomatoes to my pan of slowly sauteed onions, thinly sliced into half moons. you salt, you pepper and you’re done in 15 minutes. if that.

and then i strayed away from the recipe because I AM A REBEL and cut a creamy burrata ball in half and plopped it on top along with some more fresh basil. it’s a perfect dish. it just is. even with the aforementioned skins still thinly present…

but by far, the best part of dinner was the company. we had new friends over – emily and kevin. they brought extra tomatoes (in case), bread (i had none), wine (2 bottles of pino grigio) and a glazed lemon almond poppyseed cake that was quite good and tangy. and while we all sat there happily digging in to our respective slices, emily took her first bite and i watched as she sat there wrestling the flavors and consistency in her brain, thinking out loud about all of the things she perhaps could have done for it to have been better – and how she could improve upon it the next time.

and i thought to myself, i’m going to love this chick…

update  – with 3 reports now in on trader joe’s burrata, i am strongly recommending that you stay far away. my good friend heidi robb who i trust implicitly says, "Take a big hearty PASS. Their Mandara buffalo mozzarella is more burrata like than this insipid stuff."

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?

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.

i made this a few weeks ago and now the heirloom tomatoes in nashville are all but gone. perhaps some of you way up north are still harvesting the tail end of your crops, but it’s OVA here in the south. and it is indeed sad. but this is how the world works and i have been able to buck up and let it go because i am - mostly – a mature adult. and really, if ever a tomato was going to get a good send-off, this dish right here would be a preferred way to go.

on a brighter note, ‘the fresh market‘ a national chain of specialized grocery stores, catering to yuppies and the like who can now shop while being soothed to the tunes of bach, mozart and chopin and in flattering light, carries a surprisingly decent version of the heirloom all year round. so ok, get this – they’re grown in canada. and yes, they are pricier and not exactly replicas of what gets pulled from the ground on an dewy august morning – but they taste really good and if you’re willing to pay, it puts an end to all the whining about "winter tomatoes". (i’m quite sure i just heard the sound of all the die-hard locavores collectively groan.)

i saw this on chefectomy and knew i had to try it. the recipe is listed below, but it is all his. i take no credit whatsoever except to say that i did a damn fine rendition and when we sat down to dinner we were absolutely and collectively awed.

heirloom tomato risotto
adapted from chefectomy

5 – 7 heirloom tomatoes (depending on size)
fresh thyme sprigs (i used
2 T plus 1/4 C olive oil
salt and pepper
1/2 white onion, chopped
1/2 C dry white wine
1 C arborio rice
4 C vegetable stock or broth
1/4 C cream
6 T freshly grated parmegiano with more for serving
2 T fresh basil, julienned

place tomatoes on a baking sheet and toss with 2 T olive oil.  sprinkle with salt and pepper. cover with thyme sprigs. roast at 325 for 35 minutes or until the skins begin to wrinkle.

in a saucepan, warm the broth. heat another saucepan over medium heat and add the remaining 1/4 C of olive oil and then add the onions, cooking them until translucent 3-4 minutes.

add the arborio rice stirring to coat each grain with the oil – 2 minutes. add the wine and cook until evaporated – 1 minute.

add enough stock to rice until just covered. stir occasionally. rice should cook but not boil. continue to add stock every few minutes as it cooks off. maintain enough stock to cover rice until the liquid cooks down slightly – then add more. continue to stir occasionally. you do not want the rice to stick to the pan. the rice is ready in 16-18 minutes and should be a creamy consistency. if cooked properly the rice grains will have a very suitable hardness when you bite it.

turn off the heat and stir in the cream and parmesan cheese. add salt to taste. chop the roasted heirloom tomatoes and add to the rice. to serve ladle the rice into a warmed bowl and top with fresh basil and the parmegiano.

as a perfect accompaniment to the risotto, i made jim lahey’s (of the revolutionary no-knead bread) pizza bianca. it’s a perfect recipe except i felt it needed less water, as is reflected in the recipe below which was found on marthastewart.com. martha’s people called for 1 3/4 cups water, but this is most certainly not the case proving once again that martha is in fact quite fallible.

i think many people equate pizza bianca to a ricotta cheese based pizza, even adding mozzarella on top of that. but this is pizza bianca in its purest form and quite frankly it needs nothing else because despite its nakedness, this pizza was literally devoured before my eyes – like in a ravenous way that was almost a bit disconcerting.

jim lahey’s pizza bianca
adapted from martha stewart.com

makes 2 zen shaped pizzas – let the pizzas be what they were meant to be, not forcing them into any preconceived shapes…

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt plus more for sprinkling
3/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 sprig fresh rosemary

combine flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer, and slowly add 1 1/4 cups cold water. mix on low speed until ingredients begin to combine, increase speed to medium-high, and continue to mix for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and cleanly pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl.

place dough in an oiled bowl, and allow to rest for 2 to 4 hours until it has doubled in size. split the dough into halves, and form each into a log. place each log on a generously floured surface, and allow it to rest until the formed dough doubles in size again, at least 1 hour.

put dough on a lightly floured baker’s peel. dimple dough by pressing it down with your fingertips. work the dough outward toward the edges of the peel until you reach your desired size and thickness, about 1/4 inch. drizzle with remaining olive oil, and sprinkle with extra salt (i suggest a good flaky salt here).

place a baking stone, sometimes known as a pizza stone, in the oven. set oven to broil, about 520 degrees. slide pizza onto baking stone with the baker’s peel. bake until the bubbles range from golden to deep brown in color, 10 to 12 minutes.

again, the perfect italian dinner, if not perhaps a bit on the carb heavy side. but that’s easily rectified - just have bacon and eggs the next morning – preferably on top of any leftover pizza bianca.

but this will be unlikely…

              

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…

so… perhaps fresh linguine is ‘wrong’ for this dish,  i mean there are so many pastas and so little time to figure out exactly what goes with what or even more importantly – what doesn’t…. and perhaps the italian food gods are looking down on me and wondering what the hell i was thinking because spaghetti would have been sooooo much of a better choice…  but honestly, i don’t really know or care – because dear readers, this pasta dish was truly one of my most favorite things of all time that i have ever made.  (do i say that a lot?  i may say that a lot.)

but it’s always TRUE!

this afternoon i stopped by to see tom at his store, lazzaroli’s.  it’s a great little italian food market that sits just over on the other side of town from me, so i don’t go as often as i should.  but it’s a nashville oasis – a jewel of a little store stocked by an all american-italian guy from philly who knows what the hell he’s doing.  fregola, farro, baccala, volpi pancetta and salumis and tons of first rate oils and vinegars and much more.  and they make pasta – all day, every day.  and i bought some.  because, sometimes you just don’t wanna roll your own.  and on those days, tom is your man…

with no real plan in mind, i picked up a box of fresh linguine for tonight, some amazing looking local garlic (huge cloves), housemade ricotta and well, i left there with 2 big bags and now i have ravioli’s in my freezer for a rainy day to the tune of: roasted kale and pancetta (he let me sample the filling – unreal), spiced pumpkin with marscarpone, sweet potato with balsamic vinegar, parmigiano and a hint of grand marnier and goat cheese and pear sauteed in white wine.  each of tom’s fillings are all serious recipes unto themselves. 

one of the things i love about tom – besides that he uses the name ‘tommy noodles’ to comment on this blog – is his take on selling the pasta he makes.  you either buy tom’s sauce and his pasta.  or you buy his pasta and make your own sauce.  but he would rather not even sell you a lb. of his fresh fettucine if you’re going to buy the ‘contadina alfredo light’ sauce from the supermarket.  tom, i hear you man.  and if only you’d been here tonight i think you would have been proud…

i grew up eating a lot of italian food in some of the best restaurants in nyc – mostly northern italian.  my dad especially loved ‘filetto di pomodoro’ sauce and even if it wasn’t on the menu, the chef would always make it for him.  as tends to happen to me while writing these posts, out of curiosity and an endless quest for any and all food knowledge, i googled the term ‘filetto di pomodoro’ and not much came up.  which surprised the hell out of me until i found, arthur schwartz – the food maven.  why, he’s a ny jew.  and i’m a ny jew.  he’s big into food – namely italian.  i’m big into food – namely italian.   and arthur?  he knew just what i was talking about:

In the United States, the expression "filetto di pomodoro" has come to mean, through its use in stylish, supposedly "northern Italian" restaurants, a quickly cooked fresh tomato sauce. It should mean exactly what it says, a sauce made with discernible strips of tomato pulp, cooked so quickly they don’t turn to sauce. And it is certainly a southern Italian notion, not "northern.". One doesn’t hear or see the expression "filetto di pomodoro" used much these days in Campania, although most people know what it is, and at the height of summer one is likely to eat it. Instead, it might be called sciuè sciuè, sauce in a hurry, or just tomato sauce, sugo di pomodoro. I’ve also been told that filetto di pomodoro is a bit old-fashioned, that the vine-type cherry tomatoes, which are much easier to handle and even more delicious (certainly sweeter) to many, are being used where tomato fillets used to be.

By the way, good canned tomatoes can taste almost fresh when cooked as these are, in only five minutes in a wide pan that promotes evaporation. Keep that in mind some January when you see "fresh" filetto di pomodoro on the menu of a "northern Italian" restaurant.

arthur the food maven, that was awesome.  you both vindicated my childhood experience and set me straight – in 200 words.  i will never forget you.

anyway, this garlic was unlike any i’d ever seen.  it was big, with a long neck and only had about 7 cloves in all, but they were fresh milky white megacloves.  i peeled them without smashing and browned them slowly in olive oil. i roughly chopped whatever tomatoes i had, one big local bradley and some pretty good sized grape tomatoes and added them to the garlic. that got seasoned with salt and pepper and some dried sicilian oregano. i cooked it until the tomatoes released some of their juice and then took it off the heat.

the linguine was thrown into a big pot of salted water and after 3 minutes it was quickly drained, hit with some of the better olive oil, the tomato sauce and dressed with the fresh ricotta and some lemon lime basil from my friends garden, which gave it an interesting flavor that was a surprisingly good match for the dish.

it was really quite simple.

 just like the best italian food should be…  

i just wrote an entire post on this dish, hit publish and

IT WAS LOST FOREVER. 

and now i wanna literally cry because well, i’m tired.  and other stuff.  but i took a long time writing this post and i thought it was kinda good, and with a ton of links… but dear readers, i just can’t recreate it.  i don’t have it in me.   i need a big glass of water, my bed and the remote… asap…  a neck rub would be mighty splendid too…

basically i just wanted you to know that harissa is my new love.  and here it is on grilled shrimp with mario’s 3 hour polenta and slow roasted grape tomatoes with shallots and fresh thyme, sprinkled with guerande salt.

the end.

winners tba for the ‘IRON FORK’ contest tomorrow.

see you there…

the farro was soaked for about an hour, drained and then boiled in fresh water for 30 minutes and drained again.  i added a great olive oil from chianti in tuscany (the rest of the address still unknown) and some salt and pepper.  then with inspiration from josh friedland of the ‘the food section’ i chopped some buffalo mozzarella and some fresh tennessee tomatoes.  please look at his picture shown below because mine really was the near identical plate.

but then…

i made a gremolata of fresh parsley, crushed garlic, microplaned lemon peel, olive oil, salt, pepper – and included fresh basil because it felt right.  all of the aforementioned were minced and combined.  then i salted the 9 chops and threw them on a 900 degree grill for about 90 seconds a side.  honestly there were only 8 chops, but that kinda had a nice ring to it…

so, ok.  you with me?  here’s where i need your creative participation.  my plate has a layer of farro, then down one side of the farro is the white mozzarella, down the other side the chopped red tomato.  but now in the center we have a small mound of the green gremolata with 3 chops rising above it all standing in a leaning teepee formation.  i invented this last part.  so now we’ve got a co-written recipe here except jeff has no idea that i exist in the universe.  (hi jeff!)

the dish was totally fabulous.  and i am making it again soon so i can snap a shot.  just for you.

but in the meantime, here is proof of how the dinner began… with a good multi-grain crusty loaf, parmegiano from zingerman’s and truffle honey from market hall.  folks, this combo is not to be missed.  it’s a wow.

i liken this experience to a computer crash without any back-up files. 

it rarely happens twice.

<sigh>

dear mark, the tomato paella was friggin genius p.s. i love you

bittman is my kind of cook. he’s the minimalist. he’s the anti-keller… i saw this in the wednesday dining section of the ny times, 5 weeks ago. then it started making the blog rounds but luisa’s version looked so alluring that i knew it was just a matter of time. so with what was likely my last batch of tennessee tomatoes, i knew i had to make this. first of all, i used an italian risotto. i searched two stores for some kind of real live spanish rice, but to no avail. so i stuck with what i had and it worked great. i do believe i wound up buying the most expensive pinch of spanish saffron known to man (note to self – stock up on some good saffron) but i wasn’t going to make this and then leave out the coveted ingredient. and then there’s my new best friend – pimenton. what a fabulous ingredient you are pimenton, all smokey and deep like a nina simone song. where have you been all my life?

there was garlic, onion, tomato paste, some pinot grigio, fresh basil and parsley and a totally great spanish olive oil that i got from zingerman’s. usually i don’t heat good oils, but i made an exception here and it was well worth it. these days i’m a big spanish and french olive oil fan – ‘butterier’ than italian. less of that peppery bite. but i use all the countries for different purposes and moods. it is one of the many ways that i amuse myself. i operate as an equal opportunity olive oil consumer. yes i do. so a friend came by and we had this as our main course with a loaf of olive bread. i forgot to make a salad so instead we drank more wine.

is there a correlation? perhaps so…

after the 6 day ny fling followed by no less than 5 bowls of oatmeal in 3 days, it was time to cook something.  honestly, i could have gone longer but it’s this csa issue that i deal with.  i am beyond covered up with the last of the summer tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers, zucchini’s and now winter squash up the wazoo…  i had to cook or deal with severe vegetable guilt.  again. 

please note that this pic doesn’t include last week’s csa share that’s not been touched yet…

at my weekly farmers market we are serenaded by a bluegrass ensemble…  it’s a tennessee perk.  thought i’d share.  it’s actually pretty cool.

ok, now about dinner.

after catching up on my list of favorite food bloggers, looking for where inspiration might meet doability, i got an idea from a blog i’ve come to really like, ‘well fed ‘.  she did a tomato coulis and what struck me was the smokey aspect of her sauce.  it was just what i needed to get rolling so i followed her lead until i found a jumping off point.

i fire roasted the tomatoes until the skin charred and then  diced shallots, garlic and some wonderful hot peppers from my csa. 

in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil i sauteed the shallots, garlic and peppers careful not to brown anything.  i had soaked about 10 sun dried tomatoes in some water for about 30 minutes and i took these along with their soaking liquid and the roasted tomatoes and i threw them into my blender.  i added the tomato puree to the pan and simmered on a low heat adding salt.

then i had to think.  i knew i was off to a good beginning here.  but i wanted to get that smokey thing going on and i wasn’t sure how to achieve it.  and then it dawned on me…

enter: wow and wow

first, pimenton.  i had heard about pimenton from any number of blogs and had bought some and shelved it.  hooray for having some semblance of a functioning memory!  this was exactly what i needed.  i added about a solid tablespoon and i swear if it wasn’t instant fabulousness.

so i simmered the sauce, adding a bit more salt – and then i thought some more.  a few months ago i had bought some bottarga from zingerman’s.  it’s a sicilian dried fish roe that is grated into sauces or over pasta.  i had read about the stuff and decided to give it a go, using it once for a simple ’home alone’ dinner over some pasta.  so i threw some in.  and then added more.  and i can’t quite describe what happened.  it is very subtle.  but very much there.  it is the quintessential cooking example of  je ne sais quoi.  i am dying to try the fresh version from ’market hall foods‘ and if anyone out there in nashvilleland wants to go in on some – gimme a shout…

i simmered until the sauce was quite thick and then quartered some zucchini and threw it on the grill along with some beautiful skirt steaks – a cut i’m quite fond of. and i must tell you that this was very good.  the brightness of the tomato puree was the perfect backdrop for the heat of the peppers along with the smokey pimenton. i was really proud of myself as i felt that this fell into the category of somewhat real and original cooking.

but, my favorite part of the whole experience was cary plating his own dinner.  being the architect that he is, he went structual on purpose and religious by accident.

good god…

it happened to me. 

and now i have lived to tell the tale of my web hosting server going farther south than i already logistically am – and pretty much shutting my blog down for awhile. 

somehow the experience was strangely interesting.  when the mystery of this sudden quasi crash was in full swing, i found myself wondering if something fatal happened and the entire blog was corrupted, would i start over?  because blogging is sort of like this little commitment that you make not only to yourself, but to all the cyber people out there that might just get the littlest kick out of you and what you’re thinking about or cooking that day…  and me, well i’m only 3 months in, so i didn’t imagine a petition would be started to get ‘cook eat FRET’ back on the proverbial air waves like i would do if say ‘smitten kitchen‘ or ‘orangette‘ or ‘la tartine gourmande‘ or ‘the traveler’s lunchbox‘ somehow went away…  these people have become my guilty pleasures… stealing glimpses into their kitchens, their lives…

oh but here i am.  back up and running.  a technological miracle if only in my own mind.  and i come bearing food.  three little things.  nothing flash.  but i thought i’d share.  and for those of you wondering if i cook much of anything other than pasta these days, the answer is obviously, not so much…

nashville’s own lazzaroli’s tuscan white bean and spinach ravioli topped very simply with my oven roasted juliette’s, some olive oil, salt and pepper.

a sweet and spicy zucchini and corn recipe that i found on ‘forest street kitchen‘.

and a penne dish tossed with grated ricotta salata, minced garlic, fresh red chili peppers, lots of parsley, chopped oil cured black olives and a good dose of olive oil, salt and pepper along with some pasta water mixed back in.  nothing here is cooked except the penne.  super fresh, super good.

hey, glad to be back.  i kinda missed you.

people of the foodie blogosphere, i present to you – a mediocre photo of the perfect round festive finger food – and hey – get this… it was not ever really meant to exist.  you know, like some good version of the perfect storm.  due to what was circulating out there in kitchen land, it just happened to come together – just so…  and in stages.

now i realize it doesn’t look like much.  but let me tell you about this little fella and how he came to be…

when i was cooking for one, and before the days of ‘alone in the kitchen with an eggplant‘, i used to on occasion buy these luxurious looking deep purple shiny footballs.  and i’d pretty much do the first step below and call it dinner.  but what i am about to describe to you right here and now is both the bonafide and the virtual evolution of the little hors d’oeurve that could…  so put on your reading glasses and hold on tight.  wait, what’s that you say?  you’re only 30?  good gawd…

1. the eggplant – from my csa share – was small in stature, perhaps 8 inches long so the thinly sliced rounds were just the perfect size.  i put them on my large grill plate that stretches across 2 burners on my stove, as many as i could – lightly olive oiled and salted – and browned them.  that was good enough for me.  i begin eating.  magically delicious.

2. but half way through my eggplant, i realized that right in my fridge was the roasted tomato sauce that i’d made the day before from all the little red and yellow tomatoes – from my csa share - cut lengthwise and roasted in my oven at 250 for 2 hours with just some maldon salt and fresh pepper.  after they cooled i had put them in the vitamix along with some really good olive oil and a touch of sugar.  the flavor was shockingly good.  especially atop the eggplant rounds.

3. and just when there were maybe only 5 rounds of eggplant left, it hit me!  i had a primo batch of frozen pesto that i’d made awhile back.  not wanting to defrost all of it, i threw the ziplock in the microwave for about 20 seconds until the edge thawed slightly and i broke a chunk off with a knife.  and man was that a good idea…

it was an eggplant’s crowning glory.

hellooooo lovahhh…

not much to say here except that this unique specimen was just recently harvested by my dear friend and brilliant songwriter richard leigh - direct from his garden about an hour south of town.

i live in nashville, tn. 

and i’m here to tell ya, it’s a long damn way from nyc. 

what brought me here was the music business (ok, and a man) but what has kept me here (besides another man) is the level of true brilliance that surrounds me.  this town is mecca for songwriters and a fair few of the best are the closest friends i could have ever wished for.

among the many heart stopping songs that richard has written, you might most be familiar with “don’t it make my brown eye’s blue”.  but truly, for all the times it’s been recorded, no one on earth will ever sing it as beautifully as he does…

and that’s a fact.

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

here was sunday night’s dinner which was actually quite wonderful despite the photo. 

the potatoes were  csa yukons – small one’s – boiled and then flattened and then put in a hot pan with some olive oil for about 3 minutes a side as recently seen in the ny times mag ‘potato tostones’ recipe.  i sprinkled them with some truffle salt.  i don’t seek out potatoes especially in the summer – but delvin, my csa is growing them and yukon’s are my all time favorite potato – hands down.  last saturday i received a bag of red potatoes and i gave them away.  along with the second white cabbage.  along with the green bell peppers.  along with some of my pride.  but hey, i forgave myself.  (one of the things i am working hardest on at this late stage in my life.)

the rib eye steaks were local grassfed beef from ‘west winds farm’.  i am fortunate to be the proud owner of a TEC infra-red grill and this baby goes to the proper 900 degrees needed to achieve that steakhouse crust.  i just hit them with some grey salt and then we threw them on the heat along with some shucked corn.  the meat was very good albeit not lobel’s…  

but the salad – it was amazing.  somehow it was just perfectly and simply great.  romaine with some heirlooms, fresh garlic off the press, olive oil and balsamic with smoked salt and some black pepper.

so not overly pretty – not fancy or complicated.  but a dinner that just wants to make you say ‘god bless america’.

and while we’re being thankful, i would like to also say, god bless all you food crazed people out there like me who UNDERSTAND that using 3 different salts in three different components of one dinner is not a silly thing to do. in fact, au contraire.

but i get snickered at by my friends.

ok so here we’ve got an angel hair summer pasta dish.  listen up kids cause it’s a snap. 

just saute the diced shallots in butter (gasp) and then once the shallots have softened add some cream (double gasp) - carefully so as not to seperate, along with some salt and pepper.  then use as many cups of seeded and chopped multi-colored heirlooms as seems appropriate.  they’re here now and in full force, so we might as well lay it on heavy because they will be gone too soon and we will be so sad with nothing but the tomatoey memories to see us through to summer ’08…  so go on and add those tomatoes to the pan of cream with reckless abandon - then warm it all up (again, carefully) and pour the sauce over the pasta. 

finally, toss in a good amount of chopped basil and then upon serving grate the best parmegiano that you can get your hands on. 

voilà!

the only problem here was that the cream i bought this morning at the market was from a local dairy and it’s just not that thick.  in a way i’m relieved that this was the case because the flavor was still excellent and it was lighter – less fat grams.  but none of the sauce really clung to anything and the liquid kind of went to the bottom.  if one were doing this for ‘company’ i’d go ahead and get a heavier cream.  but just for us – it was quite nice.

this was a recipe from ‘what did you eat’ that i had eyed much earlier in the month but never got around to trying.  normally i wouldn’t ever make a pasta dish using butter and cream - it’s just not my thing.  but lured by her pic and the overall concept of fresh tomatoes in a cream sauce, i was going there and i couldn’t be swayed by my conscience.

anyway, as my mom might say looking at this dinner, “so what’s not to like”? 

(today’s farmers market haul)

and the sad part is that it’s not my creation.  it came from a recipe from “smitten kitchen“.  she saw the movie and got inspired.  i suppose i’ll see it on pay-per-view one of these days when my guy is working late because he’s most likely not going to want to humor me through an animated kids flick about a rat that cooks - no matter how great i tell him it is – and i can live with that.  yes i can.

so it all started with a little shopping excursion because although i was stocked up on the produce end of things, i needed some pomi, goat cheese, fresh thyme and i was somehow out of garlic – and much more importantly out of ‘ciao bella’ chocolate sorbet which is total fat free heaven in a carton and hands down the logical choice to cap off this dinner. 

this recipe requires mega slicing, calling for 1/16 of an inch, so i even broke out the bad-ass mandoline pulling out the .75 mm insert and that’s pretty thin… but there was a lot of slicing about to happen and there was no way i could achieve it manually.  even my cuisinart would have made the slices way too thick.

the funny (kinda sorta) story here is that cary had come home from work and was getting ready to go for a run.  as he kissed me, walking out the door, he eye-spyed the mandoline and in a serious voice said “be careful” and then he was off doing his daily 5 miles.  halfway into it an ambulance sped by and all he could think of was that i’d had a mandoline encounter of the worst kind, and as he ran back towards the house he was envisioning that i’d hemmoraged blood all over the kitchen while trying to call 911.  so obviously our collective experience with this contraption hasn’t been great.  but it has led to a new found respect for the thing and hey, i only nicked myself ever so slightly this time around so – big improvement.

ps – i even bought the mandoline with the built in guard for safety, and we’re still drawing blood over here…

so i put some pomi strained tomatoes into the bottom of the dish and diced up some garlic and onion, added salt and pepper and a little bit of olive oil and proceeded with the layering process.

and layering

until we had this pretty little number

 then cary perfectly did the parchment cut out thing being the technical guy that he is

and let it bake for 45 minutes or so.  i served it over whole wheat couscous because i had some leftover chicken broth in the fridge and couscous is so simple and fast to make and it was almost 10 pm and i needed to watch jon stewart.

last but not least you top it with some good montrachet…

and then you declare that this is the best ratatouille ever.

and i’ll be damned if i didn’t get cookers block.  the time came to prepare this basic, unassuming dish and i didn’t know what the hell to do.  now i’m not so big on chicken and have rarely done the ‘on the bone with skin’ thing.  so i panicked, sent an SOS to a really talented food blogger and then proceeded into the kitchen all on my lonesome. 

well i must have channeled the chicken gods or the kitchen gods or the god of all things cooked - because before you knew it – i had me a version all figured out. not like this is rocket surgery or anything, but still…

i chopped up some fresh oregano, minced some garlic, very thinly sliced some lemon and stuffed that under the skin along with salt and pepper – threw the breasts in a baking dish, drizzled some olive oil on top, winged it all into my super hot oven and proceeded to bake for about 15 minutes on 475 finishing it up for about another 15 at 350.   

and they came out crispy, flavorful and moist – and chickeny – but in a good way.  i even honestly impressed myself which believe me,  is no small feat.  so hey. check it out.  i can roast chicken and have it be great.  life is good.  but… hold on because before i get to feeling too pleased with myself i must give credit to the pastured broilers themselves, raised close by, all organic and really free ranging as opposed to what we usually buy when we think we’re getting the good stuff – as in ‘big organic’.  as in to a gnat’s ass of the law… but don’t get me started.

and then yesterday i was reading the ny times sunday mag and there were these recipes for – of all things – flattened food and i happened to have the perfect tomatoes that they were asking for.  not roma’s and not cherry’s but large cherry’s.  i assumed that these are something like the illegitimate child of the two. and sure enough, i had them here.  hell, if monty hall was calling out for just about any summer vegetable that could possibly be found in your kitchen, i’d be a contestant on ‘let’s make a deal’ as we speak.   so i broiled the juliette’s (their true name) quickly on both sides, blistering ever so slightly and then gently squashed them down with a potato masher.  they got tossed with some good olive oil, salt and pepper. the definition of simplicity giving way to perfection. 

the leftover risotto from the weekend sat beside the chicken and tomatoes as though it was all meant to be.

a dinner in nashville in three part harmony…

the food photo’s are hurting.  i know i know.  bear with me here folks.  i’m in the midst of a major learning curve as you can surely tell.

but if you want to see what this risotto dish should have looked like just go to “last night’s dinner” and there you’ll find the lovliest pic of a wonderful rendition because quite frankly that woman knows what the hell she’s doing and can cook her ass off and someone needs to run and give her a book deal for god’s sake…

me, well – this was my first shot at risotto and you know what?  it was good.  it was refreshingly lemony and creamy from the goat cheese and i got to use up a big zucchini from my csa share which is always a big plus.  but it was just a tad gluggy.  so i need to leave it a little soupier (are you lovin my technical cooking terms?) and then it’ll set up some more when i take it off the heat.  so i have been told and so i believe. 

the tomatoes were csa heirlooms chopped up in a good balsamic with a chiffonade of lemon basil and smoked salt sprinkled on top.  yeah buddy…

and now for your viewing enjoyment:  come with me on a voyaristic journey to a saturday morning at the franklin farmers market just south of nashville, tn where somehow i have wound up living and liking it pretty well…

the esoteric herb people.  your one stop shopping for lemon balm, summer savory, borage and the like

i get a kick out of this kinda thing

my favorite csa in the world, delvin farms – the weekly share

my buying 2 chicken breasts for $12 as my grandmother is rolling over in her grave

a big shout out to the creator of all things… !!!

summer in a box

discussing the whole foods/wild oats debacle merger with a friend at the market – and hey, check out those zucchini’s in the forefront.

my share unloaded on my kitchen island with a dozen farm eggs, the $12 chicken breasts and a pint of blackberries

wish me luck