Triple "B" Pasta

I have a problem. I love cookbooks. Fortunately, people give me cookbooks regularly as gifts, so I don't often need to feed my addiction. Occasionally, however, I have perused and purchased a new cookbook before I've thought through the consequences: namely, that I have now committed myself to making several new dishes in the coming days.


Several family members and friends have mentioned they enjoy America's Test Kitchen, which I think appears on PBS. I haven't seen the show, but spied an eponymous magazine at the grocery store the other day. (The Winter 2010 issue, to be specific.) Among the many promising recipes, I stumbled upon this pasta dish. The editors note that the recipe works because "...the [Brussels] sprouts integrate with the pasta." As a lover of sprouts and integrated pasta dishes, this had to be my first choice. (Even if you are a sprout skeptic, I strongly encourage you to give this a shot. It's wonderful!) I give you Pasta with Brussels Sprouts, Bacon, and Blue Cheese (plus a few improvised additions).


The Method

• 3/4# Brussels sprouts, trimmed and sliced thinly (They recommend using a food processor, but it takes only a few minutes by hand.)
• 5 slices bacon, chopped
• 2 shallots, sliced thinly (I used red onion.)
• 1/2 C chicken broth
• 1/2 C heavy cream
• 1 C crumbled blue cheese (I used Kellie's Blue from Sweet Grass Dairy, salty and intense)
• 1# rigatoni
• 1/2 C walnuts, toasted and chopped
• 3 large turnips (my addition)
• 1/4# mushrooms (my addition)

1. Cook the pasta al dente while completing the next steps.
2. Cook the bacon in a large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon and drain off fat, reserving 2 TBs.
3. Add reserved bacon fat to pot. Season with salt and pepper and cook the sliced sprouts and shallots (along with turnips and mushrooms, if using) until tender, 5 minutes. 
4. Stir in cream and broth. Cook until sprouts are tender, 3 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese.
6. Toss with the cooked pasta and garnish with walnuts.

The Result


Wow! As much as we enjoy Brussels sprouts, these were even better than I'd envisioned. (A little cream and bacon certainly helped.) The turnips were an excellent addition - they brought a little spice, snap, and sweetness to the dish. The mushrooms gave another layer of earthiness. Rigatoni holds up perfectly against the thick, rich sauce. You could be tempted to add chicken, which would be fine but is unnecessary. An excellent cold weather meal.

Haluski: Pasta and Cabbage United

Unseasonably cold. As a midwesterner by birth and rearing, a little winter in Florida doesn't bother me too much. I still run around in short-sleeved shirts and sandals. But, the chill makes me crave warm, one-pot dishes. Enter Haluski. At the risk of repeating myself, we recently watched an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives that featured this dish. Thumbing through my Christmas gift, More DD&D by Guy Fieri, I found the recipe from the show and Guy's own version: Holy Haluski (p. 75). I opted to make the later, because it included two ingredients I especially love: pancetta and capers. I also used the dish as the chance to use the humongous cabbage I found last week at the farmers' market.


The Method
I made this one by the book. With an almost 8 pound cabbage, I doubled the recipe (below is the single batch). This was nearly too much for my favorite Le Creuset dutch oven; but as the cabbage cooked down I managed to fit everything. 

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 1/2 pound thin-sliced pancetta, diced (I had mine sliced too thinly. Opt for something a little thinner than bacon.)
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 1 medium head of cabbage, cored and sliced 1/2" thick (I have no idea what a medium head weighs, but I was probably cooking with 3-4 times this amount.)
• 2 carrots, julienne (Save yourself the hassle and just diced them.)
• 1 TB fresh thyme
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 8 ounces wide egg noodles (I used the real deal, not the no-yolk style.)
• 3 TB garlic, minced (Okay, I probably used triple this amount.)
• 3 TB capers, rinsed and drained
• 1 C peas (I used frozen)
• 1/4 C white wine
• 1 TB lemon juice
• Italian parsley to garnish

1. Bring a pot of water to boil for the noodles.
2. In a large pot, melt 1 TB butter and fry the pancetta until crisp (12-14 minutes). 
3. Remove pancetta and drain, reserving the fat.
4. Add 2 TB pancetta fat to pot along with the remaining butter over medium-high heat.
5. Add the onions, cabbage, carrots, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Stir to coat the veggies with butter.
6. Cover and cook until cable is wilted and almost tender, 10 minutes. 
7. Uncover and cook until the cabbage is very tender, 10 minutes more.
8. While the cabbage cooks, boil the pasta al dente.
9. Increase the heat under the pot to high and cook until the cabbage and onions are golden. [Maybe it's my stove - a lack of BTUs - or the moisture content in 8 pounds of cabbage, but it took much longer: almost 40 minutes. I also had to drain off several cups of liquid so that the veggies could sautee and not simply steam.]
10. Add in the garlic and capers. Cook for 1 minute.
11. Add the peas.
12. Deglaze the pan with wine and then add the lemon juice. [I didn't achieve much of a glaze, again, probably due to the veggie volume.]
13. Add 3/4 of the pancetta (reserve the rest to garnish). Remove from the heat.
14. Drain the noodles and toss with the cabbage mixture. [It took so long for my cabbage to brown that the noodles were a congealed mass, which I lovingly teased apart with my fingers...okay, not really, I threw them in and stirred until they separated.]
15. Serve immediately garnished with parsley and pancetta.

The Results
This dish has several things in its favor. It's a great way to prepare cabbage. I suspect it would be passable even among cabbage-doubters or haters. Second, it has a mixture of sweet (onion, cabbage, peas), sour (capers), and salty (pancetta) flavors. Still, the overall dish is mellow. We paired it with a glass (or two) of the remaining wine and an OPO  arugula salad with a sharp, tangy vinaigrette.


Doubling the recipe means that we've eaten only half during three separate meals this week. As good as this was, it's going to take really willpower to eat it three more times. Unfortunately, I think it will freeze poorly; but I may give that a shot. In the end, I should have used half of the monster cabbage to make sarma.

Special spaghetti

Families give names to favorite dishes, often to designate their source or significance. My mom is a marvelous cook, so it would have been necessary to label almost everything "Mom's ____" when we were growing up. Instead, the identity of dishes by common-name alone was sufficient to evoke the desired response: craving. (Although a few dishes produce the opposite effect: Yorkshire pudding, for example. Sorry, Mom.)

Yet, even in such a food-positive family, some things stood apart. Special spaghetti is such a meal. Ridiculously easy, it holds a place among comfort foods in our family with few matches.

The Method

1. Prepare 1# (box) of pasta. Spaghetti or linguini works well. Smaller diameter noodles do not. You can certainly use alternate varieties, such as farfalle, corkscrew, etc.
2. Add 1 C frozen peas to the cooking water about halfway through. Alternately, you can heat these separately in the microwave.
3. While the pasta is cooking, brown up to 1# of bacon. [Admittedly, I probably eat 3-4 slices before they can make it into the dish.]
4. Roughly chop bacon slices. [You really only need 4-6 slices for the recipe. Keep the others for sandwiches...if there are leftovers.]
5. In a bowl, combine:
1. 3-4 eggs, beaten
2. 1/2-1 C Parmesan cheese, freshly grated is best by far
3. 1/4 C cream (optional)
6. When the pasta is al dente, drain and return to the pot.
7. Pour the egg mixture, bacon, and peas over the HOT pasta.
8. Stir until the eggs are cooked - coating the pasta. You can place the pot over heat, if necessary. Do not overcook. Allow the eggs to remain a little creamy.
9. Season with black pepper.

The Result

  Call this pasta carbonara. Call it Pasta Mama. We think special spaghetti is the perfect name.

Leftovers are wonderful for breakfast. Add a splash of milk or water when reheating, if the eggs seem dry.

Mac cheese and greens

The combination of mac and cheese with greens has become a personal favorite. Comfort food pure and simple. This is a simple cover version of the original. I did add a little brown sugar and OPO radishes to the greens for variety - and, yes, peas in the mac and cheese (always peas).

Bratwurst, baked pasta, and lima beans?

As week seven draws to a close, we had only a few things remaining to make from the CSA. Primarily, there were several handfuls of salad greens, but also a single moderately spicy chili pepper.

With family coming into town, I added the pepper to a pot of bratwurst and onions. This is a favorite method of cooking these.

The Method (Bratwurst)

1. Slice 2-3 onions
2. In a deep pot, add:
• onions
• 2 bottles of dark-ish beer (Sam Adams works well)
• 1 TBs whole mustard seed
• 1/2 TB whole black peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 fresh red chili pepper, whole or cut in half
3. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes
4. Add 5-10 bratwurst to the pot.
5. Simmer for 20 minutes. (You may wish to move the top brats to the bottom of the "pile" occasionally.)
6. Grill the brats as you like. They will be completely cooked already through the simmering, so you can grill for color.
7. While the brats are grilling, continue cooking the onion mixture over high heat until most the liquid has boiled off. (You can add a splash of oil at this stage, too, if you'd like.)

The Method (Baked Pasta and Lima Beans)

First, disabuse yourself of the notion that you have to buy specialty pasta made for baking. Several brands market a "no boil" noodle - usually lasagne - that costs more. You can achieve perfectly good results with regular pasta.

I decided to use locally grown lima beans in this dish. These weren't from our CSA, but were hand-picked and -shelled by a family who has a regular stand at the farmer's market. We love limas, and they pair well with tomatoes as a rule. I thought it was worth a shot to add them here.

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Parboil 2 C fresh lima beans in water or chicken broth, about 10 minutes.
3. Add 1# pasta to a 9x13 baking dish. (I used corkscrew-shaped pasta.)
4. Drain and add the lima beans.
5. Add slices of Italian sausage. (I used sweet sausage. Spicy would work, as would bulk Italian sausage.)
6. Add 1 jar of prepared pasta sauce. (You can certainly use homemade sauce. Publix had these 2-for-1. Easy.)
7. Mix the ingredients gently.
8. Add enough water to cover the pasta completely.
9. Top with mozzarella cheese.
10. Bake for approximately 45 minutes (until the cheese is well-browned).

The Results

What's not to love about bratwurst? The onions make a rich garnish - sweet with just a hint of spice from the pepper.

Baked pasta is a comfort food. The lima beans held up well - they retained some bite and mixed nicely with the chewy pasta.

Mac and Greens - Love in a single dish

Love. There are few things in life that that come close to feeling as good as love. Food, another four letter word, can spark us to wax poetic about our connection to something apart from ourselves.


Dinner tonight was the food equivalent of a crush. 


Our CSA share yielded a very tasty...but spicy bunch of purple mustard. (I ate one large leaf raw and it made my eyes water and nose itch.) It occurred to me that most Macaroni and Cheese concoctions use dry mustard power in the roux. Why not use sauteed mustard greens instead? (Okay, I realize this is not a novel idea. Someone can probably Google an entire website dedicated to mustard-pasta-cheese dishes.) Nonetheless, I was inspired.


The Method (Mac, Greens, and Cheese)

1. Steam then sautee 8 C. raw, chopped purple mustard leaves until al dente. Set aside.
2. Cook 1# short pasta (We used fusilli)
3. Riffing on Alton Brown's M&C recipe, prepare a roux of 3TBs each flour and butter. Cook 5 mins.
4. Add minced onion, paprika, 3 C. milk, cayenne pepper, bit of dry mustard, and a bay leaf. 
5. Cook 10 mins or until thickened.
6. Season with S&P.
7. Stir in 1 1/2 C. grated cheese (We used Super Sharp Cheddar, Grana Padano, and regular cheddar)
8. Once the cheese is incorporated, add in the sauteed mustard leaves.
9. Pour mixture over cooked pasta spread in a baking dish.
10. Cover with 1/2 C. grated cheese.
11. Cover with slices of "real" tomatoes
12. Cover with 1 C. crushed cheezit-type crackers (We used TLC brand) mixed with 3 TBs wheat bran and 3 TBs melted butter.
13. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

The Method (Arugula and Strawberry Salad)

Again, inspired by a recipe found on the Orchard Pond Organics (our CSA) website, I decided to return to a raw salad approach to arugula. 

1. Roughly chop a large bunch of arugula (We each ended up with massive portions)
2. Slice into this a pint of fresh strawberries
3. Add cubed feta cheese (although goat's cheese would be an excellent choice)
4. Drizzle with olive oil and balasamic.

The Result

Words fail when trying to describe how decadent this meal was. First, it was not overly cheesy. There was enough sauce to coat everything, yet not enough to sufficate all the other flavors and textures. The greens blended creamily with the cheese, but kept a little body - a terrific complement to the al dente pasta. Their spiciness was very muted, but infused the dish. Tomatoes as a topping? We decided this tasted like an amazing grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches.


This was definitely a - Where have you been all my life - dish!


The salad, too, was gorgeous! Five, fresh, bright flavors set against the melded (and melted) mac and cheese. The roughness of the arugula leaves contrasted with the soft pasta and greens. Strawberries peeking above everything with their tart fruitiness. Another winner. 

Greenocci

A busy week resulted in a couple of nights eating leftovers and one dinner at Red Elephant. This, however, left us with a surplus of arugula and mizuna on the final evening before our next CSA share.


Enter the Gnocci.


I had recently found a recipe for kohlrabi gnocci in the Victory Garden Cookbook. The author suggested arugula as a substitute for the kohlrabi. It seemed that we could also include the mizuna. Sounds a bit strange perhaps, but I know there are many variations of this dish in traditional Italian cooking. Plus, we still have leftover lemon chicken - so we had a fallback option if they didn't turn out.


The Method

1. Steam the arugula and mizuna (whole) until tender. (This pot reduced to 2 C.)
2. Sautee the steamed leaves in butter (add garlic powder - we have no fresh)
3. Puree the leaves with 1 C. ricotta, some nutmeg, S&P
4. Bring 6 TB butter and 1 C. water to a boil
5. Add 3/4 C. flour, mix until smooth and cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes
6. Incorporate 3 whole eggs into the flour mixture
7. Combine pureed ricotta/leaves with the batter
8. Add 3/4 C. grated Parmesan (we used Grana Padano plus Parm.)

The batter was thick and sticky. Using two spoons I began forming small "dumplings" and dropped them gently into a pot of salted, simmering water. The initial batch fell apart even with a very mild churning of the water. The leaves-to-flour ratio was too high. I ended up adding an additional 1/2 C flour to it to give it a little more body. With hindsight, I would have doubled the flour mixture for the amount of leaves I used. Also, I decided to make larger balls - about 1 1/2 - 2 inches. These held up much better during cooking. Each batch simmered for 15 minutes or so.

Drain the cooked gnocci and set them into cold water. When cool and firm, they sink. Transfer these to a butter-greased baking dish.

I sprinkled these with browned onions and a good handful of grated Grana Padano. They baked at 350 for about 20 minutes.

The Results

Batter difficulties aside, the gnocci were wonderful. A savory, soft - almost fluffy - texture. The choice of browned onions in place of a sauce was excellent. The flavor of the arugula and mizuna blended nicely with the cheese, nutmeg, and egg. (Remember, we are using free range chicken eggs from Twin Oaks Farm, which have a deep, rich yolk and a very fresh taste.) They didn't hold their shape well. Perhaps using potato in the batter (or simply increasing the amount of roux) would help.

The only downside to eating salad greens this way is the amount of time this recipe takes - it's far more involved than simply preparing a raw salad with dressing. But it was worth it.

We served another cucumber and tomato salad with this. There are precious few weeks left in real tomato season! (Sorry for the poor picture.)