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 Dinner with the Parents

For Channukah this year, the Thrifty Sifter and I banded together and created a menu for her parents. They could select an appetizer, a soup, a salad, an entree, and a dessert. We're talkin' real five course meal here.

Thon à la provençal was not on the menu, but after seeing my thon à la provençal entry the Sifterly Rents decided they wanted their own. While they also declined to select a soup from the menu, the rest of the meal was entirely from the plan created by the two of us.

Whilst the Thrifty Sifter and I focused on our main signature dishes (her the cobbler, me the tuna) we both helped out with the other dishes as far as prep.

The best part for me was getting a crack at her parent's kitchen which, as you can see, is pretty kick-ass.

 

Probably the first difference you'll notice between this and my original tuna recipe is that I'm using yellowfin here. We hit up several local grocery stores before finding a great fish and the yellowfin was the best. I'd still go for a regular tuna in the end, but this was quite tasty. 

Here I prep some tomatoes for juicing and dicing.

All lined up for the kill.

The Thrifty Sifter shows off her apron (and face).

Prepping the various ingredients for bruschetta.

Blueberries are ready for cobbling.

Kale is ready for wilting.

My evening work station. You've got tuna on the left, the rest of the ingredients right up front, and my meat glaze reducing to the right.

Yes, that is a crazy-looking chicken near the kale. No, I don't know why.

Cobbled yet not cooked.

The table set for bruschetta.

Traditional, white bean, and roasted red pepper bruschetta.

Yup, I screwed up and didn't get a picture of the finished tuna. Here are the (few) leftovers. 

And a yummy, yummy cobbler.

Your soundtrack for this entry: Default - All Over Me.

The Homemade Margherita Pizza

No, the Thrifty Sifter hasn't blogged in some time. I'm a bit upset with her over that since she has been baking up a storm the entire time. It's now up to me to document some awesome baking.

We decided to make our own margherita pizza with mushrooms and it was fan-fucking-tastic. The Thrifty Sifter and I took some classes at the Culinary Institute of America a couple of months ago. While I was learning how not to flay my own thumbs, she was learning artisinal baking, including pizza.

Since then Thrifty Sifter acquired a pizza stone and we decided to make use of it tonight. In forty minutes with pizza dough, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, mixed fresh mushrooms, and a tomato sauce of canned plum tomatoes mixed with onion, garlic, salt, and pepper, you really can't go wrong.

So easy and simple (even quick), but SO tasty. We still need some practice at making it completely circular.

Your soundtrack for this entry: Danko Jones - Lovercall.

The Homemade Pasta Sauce

This one is pretty easy and not too much more time than using a pre-made grocery-bought sauce. You can substitute the canned crushed tomatoes or plain sauce for fresh with tomato paste if you like.

Ingredients:
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves of fresh garlic, minced
2 sprigs of fresh thyme, chopped
2 sprigs of fresh oregano, chopped
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
salt
pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes

Preheat your sauce pan on medium high, then add olive oil until shimmering. Add onions and garlic and cook until translucent. Mix in herbs (minus the parsley) and cook another minute or two.

Then you should add in the tomatoes. Heat until at a light simmer, then add the parsley. Cook another 10 minutes.

When ready you can add to any type of pasta. I used fresh fettuccine and sprinkled with shredded pecorino romano.  

Your soundtrack for this entry: Arkells - Oh, The Boss is Coming.

The Cod and Brussels Sprouts

Yup, still not able to make a proper tuna steak after this. Every time I walk into the grocery without planning at the end of the day and see the tuna, I nearly shed a tear. So good, but so much time. I'll have to make it for tuna-friendly friends some weekend.

This week I decided I hadn't had a good cod in a while, so I picked up a filet and got cracking. I won't really go into specifics on this one as the basic recipe is to give it a shellacking in flavour and bake at 400 in the oven for 40 minutes (or until visibly flaky).

I worked in a fish restaurant for several years, so I feel like I can make all types of fish to all types of consistencies and yet am still not quite an expert. My personal preference for fish and chicken (though not red meats) is on the dry side.

Here I did a very basic salt, pepper, a little white wine, and smoked paprika. Brussels sprouts were sauteéd in olive oil, salt, and pepper for 3 - 5 minutes.

Your soundtrack for this entry: Amon Amarth - War of the Gods.

The Chicken I Forgot

It's clear that I didn't write for almost all of February. A lot of recipes were banked in February, though. Of course sometimes you risk forgetting a few things and in this case I don't even remember what the recipe was.

Obviously the main dish is a chicken breast. There are kalamata olives, probably some onions, tomatoes, and peppers. It could be chicken breasts provençal. But I don't really know. And clearly I was in a rush if the side dish was so obviously frozen mixed veggies (don't knock 'em).

Sure looks tasty.

Your soundtrack for this entry: ohgr - water.

The Turkey Turkey Cheeseburger

While my #1 bar food is definitively chicken wings, a close second is burgers. Beefburgers, bison burgers, and today's dish, turkey burgers. This isn't a terribly complicated recipe.

Ingredients:
- 1 pound of ground turkey (will server 3 - 4)
- one package of uncured turkey bacon
- one small white onion (shredded)
- one beefsteak tomato
- iceberg lettuce
- cheddar cheese (shredded or sliced)
- frozen french fries (hand cut by yourself if you want to be classy)
- salt
- pepper

Pre-heat broiler.

Use an icecream scoop to scoop out equal measures of ground turkey. Without touching with your hands, place on a  cast iron skillet pre-heated over medium-high heat. Sprinkle fresh ground pepper and salt. Flatten by pushing a handful of onion down into meat. Cook 2 - 3 minutes on one side. Flatted with spatula and flip, cooking another minute.

Remove burger patties to a plate, but leave heat on. Place turkey bacon on skillet and cook until crispy on both sides. Put burgers back in skillet, top with cheese and bacon, then put in broiler for two minutes.

Toast or not toast the buns however you see fit. Personally I like toasty. Garnish and condiment to taste.

Cook the fries however you see fit.

 

Your soundtrack for this entry: Rasputina - The Mayor