The Spaghetti with Pancetta, Sage, and Mushrooms

This recipe I had saved in my Epicurious recipe box for a while. Since I had fresh sage on hand from my last entry, I figured I could use it in this. As well I have a ton of spaghetti from a big sale the Key Food had a while back, so I'm making a lot of spaghetti. If you don't like spaghetti you can go to hell.

This tasted great and I pretty much followed the recipe to the letter. However, I have to say the colour put me off a little. Not entirely sure why, but probably because I'm not used to reddish-brown pasta. Still, all the mushrooms, the wine and broth reduction, and of course the pancetta were fantastic.

Reducing the wine and beef broth actually took the most time. 

Crimini and baby bellas coupled with some white mushrooms for this one. I used about half the recommended butter. You can see it and the fresh herbs in the background along with the chopped pancetta.

Everything comes together saucewise. 

Finishing up the pasta in the sauce itself. 

The finished product. Tasty and lovely. 

Your soundtrack for this entry: Cathedral - Corpsecycle. 

The Italy-Inspired Spaghetti, Butter, and Sage

First off, apologies for the blur in my last post. I admit, it was a lazy one, but then again I was busy cooking out and having a blast for the 4th of July. Must've had a pig and a half last week!

Secondly, this post contains a recipe inspired by my recent trip to Italy. This one is quite simple, with only a handful of ingredients and not much more than 20 minutes prep time. It's also quite flavour-full!

Ingredients:
- 2.5 tablespoons of unsalted butter
- 2 - 3 tablespoons of fresh sage, chopped
- 2 sprigs of fresh sage for garnish
- 2 ounces of baby bella mushrooms, sliced
- half a pound of spaghetti
- 1/2 cup of spaghetti liquid reserved after draining
- 1/4 cup shaved parmesan

Heat up the water for the spaghetti while you're doing your other prep. You should start cooking the spaghetti before you start the sauce. Cook it about five minutes until not quite done, then drain, reserving a half cup of the liquid.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat until bubbling. Add the sage and mushrooms. Cook in butter until tender. Now add your spaghetti and mix thoroughly. Cook another two to three minutes until al dente, adding reserved liquid if it gets dry.

Serve into bowls and garnish with shaved parmesan, fresh pepper, and a sprig of fresh sage.

Your soundtrack for this entry: Alice in Chains - Would?

The Za'atar Lamb Chops and Golden Crusted Brussels Sprouts

I came so close to making fish. Then it was almost another pasta. Then I figured just because I love pasta, you dear readers would think that's all I could make. Bah! The lamb caught my eye and the lamb's what I made. My arteries probably hate me now, but who needs them?

So, what's za'atar? Until a few months ago I didn't know either, but the Thrifty Sifter made some of her own and conveniently left it at my place. Essentially it's a Middle Eastern equivalent to salt and pepper in that it's the spice. Serious Eats has a more in-depth za'atar description. It goes great on meat, as I proved to myself last night.

Overall this was an extremely simple dinner to make.

Ingredients for lamb chops:
- lamb chops
- fresh ground pepper
- salt
- za'atar

Ingredients for brussels sprouts:
- brussels sprouts
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- shaved parmesan

To paraphrase Heidi Swanson, whose golden crusted brussels sprouts entry I perused, this isn't much of a recipe. Hell I would barely consider the above a list of ingredients. You can essentially follow her directions for the brussels sprouts. The only change I really made was using shaved parmesan.

Also, you should take her advice about using small sprouts. I'm battling a cold and don't feel so hot, so I rushed through the grocery store produce section instead of hitting up my regular United Bros. Fruit Company across the street. Some of my sprouts were on the large side and, yes, they burned and didn't make it to the final plate.

The lamb chops are a simple affair, too. Sprinkle salt on both sides, grind pepper on both sides, and dust both sides with za'atar. Let sit for 15 minutes or so, then sear them in a skillet over medium heat to desired doneosity. Let them rest a few minutes and serve. 

And yeah, even though I'm sick, I had to have a beer with dinner. That's a Hop Noir from Peak Organic, a black IPA. NOM!

Your soundtrack for this entry: Ghost - Ritual.

The First Try at Pork Chops

OH EM GEE PORK CHOPS!!!

For a while I've been reticent to make a pork chop. After giving up keeping kosher a few months ago, I've eaten a ton of treif, but haven't embarked on the fabulous pork chop.

And I'll be honest: it showed with this recipe. The chops were almost too dry and not terribly tender. My parmesan and smoked paprika coating was great, as was the baby bok choy and chopped baby carrots steamed side dish, but this wouldn't be one of my ace meals.

That's okay. I don't expect to nail new things the first time. Sometimes I do (as you'll see tomorrow) and sometimes I don't.

Some Samuel Adams made it all better. My personal favourite beer is an IPA, which is increasingly popular here in New York. Because of that I've been making an effort to branch out from time to time to my less-favoured beers. Number two on my list is probably lager.

You can see here the meat's cooked through and it definitely looks yummy, but I'm sure you can tell it's not all that juicy or tender.

Still, I enjoyed eating it with a creepy expression on my face.

Your soundtrack for this entry: Dream Theater - On the Backs of Angels.

The Corn Pesto (with Bacon)

Corn pesto? With bacon? Jeremy, you have to be kidding me! No, I assure you Susanna (I assume the interlocutioner is named Susanna), I'm not kidding you. The Thrifty Sifter found us a scrumptatious recipe and I made it. This is also my first pesto, so it's odd for me to have gone outside the traditional bounds. Usually when I do something for the first time, I like to try the classic version first.

But, y'know...bacon.

Epicurious, as they do frequently, provided the fresh corn pesto recipe. My only comment is that I'd cut the amount of corn by 30% or double the amount of pasta. There was a bit too much corn kernelage in there. We also used perciatelli. This is my favourite type of pasta.

Post bacon, pre-corn sautée.

Breaking out the Thrifty Sifter's new food processor. Dropping most of the rest of the ingredients in here was easy.

Zoooooooooooooooooooom!

The final product was familiar, but given a fantastic kick by the addition of bacon and the cooking of the corn in a bit of bacon fat. Bacon, parmesan, and fresh basil definitely go well together, bringing out interesting flavours in each other.

Your soundtrack for this entry: Björk - Crystalline.

The Pappardelle with Lamb, Sausage, and Porcini Ragu

This was my first attempt at a ragu and everyone involved fell in love with it. The guestlist included most of the folks from The Night of Julia Child and we had both copious food and copious drink. The evening was rather impromptu; in fact I only asked if anyone wanted to come over around 3 PM and had folks over by 8.

I adapted this recipe from Epicurious, so won't go into much detail except to say that you should prepare all the ingredients beforehand. It will make your life so much easier.

Your soundtrack for this entry: The Halo Friendlies - Run Away.

The Pasta Primavera

You know what's great? Being able to ring a few friends last minute for dinner and have them show up. This is a rarity in New York City, much like the fabled "dropping by to visit without planning a week ahead." Incidentally that happened successfully yesterday, too.

At any rate, I hit up a handful of people and my now-stalwart crew of Sal and Laura were happy to oblige. For dinner I planned to make mushroom asparagus tarts and pasta primavera, but kinda ran out of puff after doing prep work and decided to just cover the pasta. The tarts will be featured in a future entry.

Ingredients
10 ounces farfalle pasta
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 thin green beans
1/2 cup asparagus sliced into 1-inch pieces
1 cup brussels sprouts, trimmed and quartered
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
salt
fresh pepper
1 cup half and half
1/2 cup grated parmesan
4 plum tomatoes seeded and diced
2 tablespoons chopped chives

Much like me, these mushrooms are fun guys. 

Prepping the veggies. 

Prep for the mushroom pastries I didn't end up making. 

This is a fairly simple recipe. First, prepare your pasta. I cook about 8 minutes in salted, boiling water, then drain.

When the pasta's about half done, melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Once melted, bring the heat to high and sauté all of the vegetables until tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Next add half and half and cook until thickened (6-7 minutes). Add more pepper. At least if you're me.

Add the drained pasta and parmesan, then mix. Loosely mix in chives and tomatoes and you're done.

Laura and Sal gave it each a thumb up and a mouth full. 

Your soundtrack for this entry: RainbowDragonEyes - Fortune's Dividend.

The Black Pepper Chicken Pasta

This one goes out to my newly-married work sidekick Lauren Soule. Maybe some day I'll get to be her sidekick instead. For now though, she's back from her honeymoon and to continue honouring her request for more things she can eat, here's a chicken pasta. That combines TWO requested things.

You might notice that I don't post absolutely everything I make. It's not all good, sometimes I forget to photograph stuff, or as is often the case I have leftovers. I'm not that keen to cover leftovers recipes here (and I don't count tacos!), but this one was too good.

Here I used a leftover piece of The Black Prince Chicken. Diced into quarter inch pieces, this fit perfectly in my small saucepan.

Heat over medium and add a cup of chicken broth. Simmer for ten minutes. 

Chop up half an onion and add to the simmering mixture. After a few minutes, add the frozen pearl onions. Trust me, this did not make it too oniony.

The damn pasta's always trying to escape. 

When the pasta's al dente (a real al dente, not that American al dente that's all flaccid), drain and put back in the pot with the chicken and onion mixture. Add about a teaspoon of fresh ground pepper, a half cup of grated parmesan, and top with dried parsley.

Yummo. This turns out to be a little on the dry side, which is absolutely fine with me. All the flavours of the chicken that weren't fine on their own in yesterday's recipe came together in this to make a perfect pasta. Somehow it reminded me of a white clam sauce.

Your soundtrack for this entry: MGMT - Pieces of What

The Heirloom Pasta Sauce

Greenmarket happens Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in Union Square. It's a great place to get some cheap lunch (I like to get bread and greens and eat that with some store-bought cheese). Many local chefs shop there to stock up during the week. Rarely have I bought anything to cook for dinner, but this week I was itching to make a pasta sauce from scratch.

What you see above is (from right to left):
- fresh basil
- two fresh garlic bulbs
- three small yellow onions
- three large heirloom tomatoes
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper

All of the above were grown locally in New York State. The heirloom tomatoes have a rich, intense tomato taste and smell, the garlic is so fresh and pungent, and those onions...mmm! We'll get to them later.

I loved mincing this garlic. The smell permeated the apartment, though not in an overbearing way, and this fresh it had such a spicier aroma than the usual garlic I get at the store. Is that 'cause it's local? Is it 'cause it's fresher? A different variety? I don't know. But it's good!

Peel and mince the onions. Pre-heat a large saucepan over medium flame, then add two to three tablespoons of olive oil. Once shimmering, add the garlic and onions.

That is going to smell your apartment up something fierce! While you are cooking these until the onions are translucent, dice up the tomatoes. Most pasta sauce recipes call for blanching and peeling the tomatoes, but I like the flavour that the skin adds and it adds a nice texture, too.

Add the tomatoes and gently mix in.

Bring this to a simmer and keep it there. The liquid will start coming out of the tomatoes and mix in with the onions and garlic. The smell should be driving you mad right about now, hoping that you can eat it soon. Well, chop up a generous portion of basil (I did two handfuls).

Then you're going to simmer this all together for about ten minutes. Then add salt and pepper to taste and simmer another hour.

Of course you can put the water on and get it boiling toward the end of this, cooking up your pasta, or you can finish up and save the sauce for later. Once it has reached a consistency you like, turn off the heat.

I didn't, and this is what Jeremy had for dinner that night. Seasoned with fresh pepper and grated parmesan.

And also the next night with the Thrifty Sifter, when we had it over mushroom tortellini seasoned with fresh pepper and shredded parmesan.

Your soundtrack for this entry: David Bowie - Reality