Farfalle with Braised Leeks, Prosciutto and Porcini Pangrattato

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jamie-at-home/cheats-pappardelle-with-slow-braised-leeks-and-crispy-porcini-pangrattato-recipe/index.html

This is a modified version of a Jamie Oliver recipe, which can be found by clicking the photo. I substituted farfalle for paparadelle because it was the closest thing I had in the house at the time. I’ve also made this with fettucine, which works well in a pinch. The leeks and braising liquid makes a light sauce that delicately coats the pasta. Two neat things about this recipe:

1. He suggests covering the leeks with a layer of prosciutto to lock in the moisture during braising and the added flavor is absolutely amazing. 

2. Because this is a white wine sauce, it works well with the porcini pangrattato, which gives it a nice kick at the end. If memory serves, pangrattato is sort of like peasant cheese, because it’s inexpensive. This one is made by pulising stale bread with dried porcini mushrooms and rosemary. Then it’s toasted, giving the pasta a wonderful crunch. If you have the patience required to clean leeks (yes, big pain in the ass because they need to really be soaked to remove all the dirt and grit), then I highly recommend this dish. I made it for my boyfriend and father one night and it knocked their socks off.

Passing the Bar Dinner

After three long years of days and nights when we didn't even see eachother--Keith either studying, practicing for mock trial, or fighting the good fight as SBA president--law school was over last spring. Hooah! Although, I shouldn't speak so soon, since I just found out he's returning as a coach for this year's mock trial competition, using up his Sundays for the next two months, (and of course, let's not forget the still looming Saturday nights of waiting tables). Still, school is over. And then he studied arduously for "the hardest test you ever take in your life" as he puts it. After three months of fretting over the results, they finally came in last Friday, and hallelujah, he passed. On to bigger and better things, like paying off student loans, credit card bills, and all the other lovely things that come with being a student for seven plus years. It finally feels like it's time to celelbrate. Plus, I'll be done student teaching in December, and then once I write my thesis in the spring, I'll be done with school forever. Then again, I'm hearing from just about everyone, that it makes sense to get a 6th year, but I've got some time before I'll even start to consider that.

So, onto the dinner. My brother is also visiting from Colorado (a rare treat), and I made a killer pasta dish. No recipe. It was just a flying by the seat of my pants sorta night. I started with al dente penne and fork tender Brussels sprouts. Then I made a white wine sauce with sauteed shallots and garlic, deglazed with white wine. Then I hit it with some heavy cream to thicken it up, and dropped in some crumbled gorgonzola. I finished it off with some black pepper, and roughly chopped flat leaf parsley. Et voila! Meal fit for a newly sworn in attorney. So proud, and that's an understatement.

Grilling in Snow Shoes

My dad makes claims of being a grill afficionado, and while I do give him props I think he's just a guy who likes to relax outside, occasionally flipping a steak or a burger. Don't get me wrong-he's a great cook (when he's not being lazy) and he was probably the person who's taught me most in the kitchen. Despite the fact that it's December and here in New England it's 30 degrees and snowing outside he wanted to grill this week. I met him halfway and decided to grill some food (indoors) in our cast iron grill pan the other night. I started out with plain grilled chicken breast and made a sun-dried tomato cream sauce to drizzle over the top, which came out so good I swear I could have just eaten the sauce and been happy. But as someone who has to cook a full rounded meal each night, I also grilled some polenta and vegetables, both of which came out great.


For the Sauce:
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup roughly chopped sun-dried tomatoes (drained if packed in oil)
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup chopped parsley

1.Saute the garlic in oil and deglaze pan with wine.
2.When alcohol has burned off, add tomatoes along with salt and pepper. Heat through.
3.Add cream and bring to a simmer. Add parsley, leaving about 1 Tbsp for garnish.
4.Put sauce in a blender and pulsate to incorporate the ingredients to your desired texture. (I pureed mine until there were only little flecks of red from the tomatoes.)
5.Serve over chicken, pasta, or be inventive and try something different!


For the polenta I took the lazy route and started with the store bought, tube (the package looks a little like a roll of sausage meat). I sliced it into 1/4 inch slices, lightly brushed it with olive oil and grilled away. Polenta takes on a nutty flavor when it's grilled and the crunchy outside crust creates a nice texture.



So, if you're feeling boredom that comes with eating the same hearty, warming, winter-friendly food every night, pull out your grill pan, throw on some summer tunes and have yourself an "indoor" grilling party.

Danks-giving

I stole that from my brother. I'm not a person who uses the word "dank" to describe a seriously good thing, but in this case, I will use it. Because that's what our Thanksgiving dinner was- DANK. Ha!

I got this recipe for roasted butternut squash and shallots from Real Simple. While I do love sweet potatoes, I hate the traditional American version with baked marshmallows on top, so I tend to strike that item from the menu altogether. Mostly because I know that if I do serve it, Keith, with his affinity for sweets, will beg for the over-processed, sickeningly sweet marshmallows on top. Have I ever mentioned his favorite candies are Peeps and candycorn? He's gone so far as to order boxes of candy corn on the internet when it's not "in season". That said, he does appreciate "foodie" food, having worked in restaurants all his life, and this dish was a fine alternative to the sweet potatoes. It was sweet and salty and had a very earthy taste from the squash and the roasting process. And I love shallots. I think this recipe called for 10 or so shallots. Mmmm.


This is a cranberry chutney I saw on Martha Stewart on demand. It raised many eyebrows as I cooked that morning, mainly because the house stunk of onion and fruit and strange spices, but the result was so satisfying. I would make this dish a hundred times more, Thanksgiving or not. It would go great with an Indian spiced pork loin or chicken.



The turkey breast was simple-just rubbed with fresh sage, rosemary, thyme and my dad made a stellar gravy to go with it.


And last, but not least, broccoli gratin. My favorite. I got the recipe here. I love broccoli and cheese is definitely in my top five. Gruyere is so good, I just couldn't resist, even though it's not a traditional holiday side dish.

Showering with the Family

Not literally, of course! By that I mean, throwing a bridal shower for Keith's sister.

Despite the frenetic energy that comes with being a bridesmaid for the first time, and having to take man this position from home base while the bride lives in Tenessee, my other "future sister-in-law" and I decided to throw a last minute shower. We were joined by the groom's mother, who thankfully catered the event, as she and her husband own a gourmet food and deli in town. But as always, I had to go above and beyond and make everything I was bringing from scratch. This included a few gallons of butternut squash bisque and over 250 cookies to give as favors at the end of the party. Meredith, said "future sister-in-law", and I went way overboard as we tried to tackle three different cookie recipes (all of which were virgins in my kitchen). Oh, and did I mention they were Martha recipes? We all know what that entails. Oh yeah-and one of the cookies even called for food color stamping? Yup. We stamped over 100 sugar cookies with monogrammed letters for the bride and groom.

Meredith and I had some "Lucy and Ethel" moments, the first being when we tried filling the portable soup carrier with water (measuring to see how many gallons it took) without first checking to see if the spout was closed. It wasn't. And it's hard to believe, but even after our jeans and shoes were soaked and we were standing out in the dark for 10 minutes trying to empty the container and start again, we actually repeated our mistake.

Fortunately, I had baked the sugar cookies and even iced them earlier in the day, but the stamping project proved to be way more difficult than we expected. Then again, with a Martha project, shouldn't I have learned that lesson a while ago? She makes everything look so damn easy. Needless to say, the icing hadn't completely dried, so when we started stamping the letters, the letters were making impressions into the icing (cracking it as we went) instead of sitting nicely on top. We managed to get a few good ones in before stopping to let the icing dry.


Our next cookie, which eventually became my favorite, was a maple leaf cookie that received a wash of locally harvested maple syrup and a splash of dusting sugar.

The final cookie was a soft pumpkin spice cookie with a maple glaze. Also, delicious, even though we didn't have time to ice the cookies that morning of the shower.

Chimmicuri

Dinner In

Last night I decided to be Joan Cleaver and prepare Keith a lavish dinner (well, I don't know how lavish it was, but still there was a salad and a main) for when he got home from work. Literally, I was there waiting to toss the salad when he walked in the door, and I had the pasta water just below a boil, and the sauce on a gentle simmer. It was very 1950's housewife of me, but I am getting bored with my two weeks off before work starts again.

We started with a simple salad of Romaine and cherry tomatoes and storebought--yes, storebought--Italian dressing. Italian dressing (the vinaigrette kind, not the gloppy white stuff) is one of those dressings I feel like I could never get quite right at home. It always ends up too restaurant-y and I want the taste I grew up with.
I used our very own cherry tomatoes and some fresh romaine and Newman's Own Italian dressing. It's the next best thing to homemade-satisfies my "store-bought" craving, but it's organic and doesn't have any gross additives like high fructose corn syrup. I definitely recommend it.

I also tried a new pasta recipe out. It's a faux bolognese from Mario Batali and uses prosciutto and mushrooms in place of ground beef or pork. Very tasty and quick to make.

Caprese Salad

Caprese Salad

1/2 pound fresh buffalo mozzarella, sliced thinly
1-2 plum tomatoes, depending on size, sliced thinly
1/2 bunch fresh basil, chiffonade, save 3 or 4 leaves whole for garnish
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Arrange sliced tomatoes and cheese on a plate. Either alternate or combine in pairs. Add shredded basil to each pair and drizzle with olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with basil leaves.

New Recipes

It's taken me a little while, but I finally got some of my recipes posted in the cooking section. Most are adapted from various cookbook recipes over the years. Some are my own creations. Others are taken straight from cook books (as noted), but are favorites of mine.