Happy New Year!

Just a quick note to wish you a wonderful 2012 full of good times, good friends and, most of all, good food!

To get you off to the right start, here's a dish you might try - it's celebratory and impressive, though not difficult, and just decadent enough.  Thanks to all of you who have continued to tune in throughout the year and check out what's cooking with me.  I appreciate your appetite!

Pasta with Vodka Sauce - adapted from Grace Parisi's Get Saucy
(Makes 6 servings)


A Brief Word on Pasta:  Although vodka sauce is traditionally served with penne, I recommend any pasta that is substantial (ie. not too thin) and pleasing to you - maybe fusilli, gemelli, rigatoni, or even bucatini (pictured), a thick spaghetti-like pasta with a hole running through the middle.  Whatever the variety you choose, make sure you cook it in rapidly boiling, well-salted water (no oil!!), stir frequently, drain promptly, and reserve some of the pasta cooking water to help glue the sauce to the pasta - it makes a big difference!


1 pound (16 oz.) dried pasta

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
4 ounces thickly-sliced pancetta, diced
1/2 onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Pinch of dried oregano
1/4 cup vodka
One 28-ounce can peeled whole Italian tomatoes, with juice, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup frozen green peas, thawed
salt to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, and then salt generously.  Cook pasta according to package instructions.  Drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid, and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large, deep pan over medium-high heat and add pancetta, stirring occasionally until browned and the fat has rendered.  Add the onion, garlic, red pepper, oregano, and tomato paste and stir until softened, about 3 minutes.  Add the vodka and cook until evaporated, scraping up the browned bits stuck to the pan (hooray for pre-cleaning the pot!).  Add the tomatoes and simmer over medium heat until thickened slightly, about 20 minutes.  Add the cream and peas and simmer another 10 minutes.  Season with salt and more red pepper to taste.

If the saucepan is large enough, add the pasta now and reduce heat to low.  If not, transfer both the pasta and the sauce to a clean, large pot, over low heat.  Stir well and add pasta cooking water to thin sauce to your liking.  I like to make it a little too thin at this point, and wait an extra 10 minutes for the liquid to evaporate - this helps the sauce really stick to each piece of pasta.  If you're in a hurry, you can skip this and just serve immediately.  Either way, enjoy with a sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley and a hearty appetite!

Sunday Suppers: Italian Pot Roast

Hello my peoples.  Crazy how another week has flown by, huh?  Here in New York we had two glorious days of fall, and then it was back to the parallel alter-universe of disgusting, extra-seasonal weather that we've all come to love to hate.  Rain and sweat and yuck.

But let's just pretend, for a brief moment, that we are indeed experiencing a glorious fall day: the weather is crisp, the leaves are turning the landscape into a vibrant watercolor, and we have the undeniable urge to throw on chunky sweaters and sip hot spiced cider.  Mmmm.  This is the ideal weather for a pot roast!

Stracotto means "overcooked," an unfortunately dull and misleading adjective the Italians have used to describe this decadent, melt-in-your-mouth meat dish.  I went to my cooking bible, The Joy of Cooking, for this one and am glad I did.  When it comes to the intersecting planes of soupy, saucy, and meaty, the Rombauer-Becker clan have got you covered.  I only changed one thing, which was the amount of fresh herbs used.  I dialed those way up, since herbs are not only delicious but full of excellent antioxidant properties, good for staving off that autumn chill.


Italian Pot Roast (Stracotto) - adapted from The Joy of Cooking
8 to 10 servings

3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 cup packed parsley leaves, chopped
10 fresh sage leaves, chopped
1/4 cup fresh rosemary, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 boneless beef pot roast (4 to 5 pounds)
1 teaspoon salt

 1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery rib with leaves, chopped
4 ounces mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 bay leaf

2 1/2 cups dry red wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups beef or chicken stock
One 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, drained and crushed

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In a small bowl, mix the garlic and herbs.  Set aside half the mixture and mix the rest with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the black pepper.  Make about 10 deep slits all over the pot roast and stuff them with the herb and oil mixture.

Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add the roast and brown on all sides, about 20 minutes.  Be careful not to let it scorch.  Remove the roast to a platter and pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat.  Sprinkle the roast with salt.

Return the pot to heat and add the onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms, and bay leaf.  Cook until the onion is lightly browned, then add the herb mixture and cook another 30 seconds.  Add 1/2 cup of the wine and the tomato paste, and boil until the pot is almost dry.  Then stir in another 1 cup of wine and 1 cup of stock.  Reduce to less than 1/2 cup.  Finally, add the roast back to the pot, along with the rest of the wine and stock, and the crushed tomatoes.

Bring to a gentle simmer and cover the pot. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting so that the liquid barely simmers and cook for 2.5 hours.  Turn the meat every 30 minutes or so.  When the roast is tender, move it to a platter and cover with foil to keep warm.  Skim off any fat from the sauce and take out the bay leaf.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  If the sauce seems too thin, boil it down for a few minutes until it reaches the desired consistency.  Slice the meat about 1/4 inch thick and serve it with the sauce.

Sunday Suppers

Hey people, I'm baaaaaaack...

Sorry for the nearly summer-long hiatus.  I guess even though Dan and I didn't take a honeymoon per se (that comes later - Thailand in January!), we kind of checked out of the universe for a time.  But now Dan's back to school, and I'm back to reality, so let's get cooking!

Since Dan is taking pre-med classes mainly in the evenings, I've been strategizing ways to keep him nourished and away from the automatic takeout loop.  The answer, I'm finding, is in casseroles.  Big hearty dishes that I can make in bulk on Sundays, to be reheated at a moment's notice and last the whole week long.  So I'm hereby instituting a new series on the blog, which we'll call Sunday Suppers.  How bout it?  Maybe this will finally slap me into a steady cooking routine, something I've fallen off the wagon with in the past, say, two years.  That's what happens when you cook for a living, I guess.  Hmm...

A few words about this recipe: You can most definitely make them using the more traditional ricotta filling if you'd prefer, but I went the cottage cheese route because, a) it's much easier to find tasty cottage cheese than it is to find good quality ricotta (Polly-O, O no!), and b) it's packed with double the protein, making this much more filling without all that extra fat.  Great for those long nights in the chem lab (for example).

Meaty Stuffed Shells adapted from recipe by Heidi Swanson
(serves 6 to 8)

zest of one lemon

Sauce:
1/2 pound ground meat (beef, turkey, or a beef/pork/veal blend, all good choices)
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes (Calabrese is the best, if you can find it)
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoons dried oregano
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Filling:
1 16-ounce container 4% milkfat cottage cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 cup (about 5 oz.) grated mozzarella
1 bunch chives, finely chopped
large pinch of salt

25-30 jumbo pasta shells (Ronzoni makes nice ones)

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Oil a 13 x 9 inch (or equivalent) 3 quart baking dish and sprinkle with half the lemon zest.  Put up a big pot of pasta water to boil and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To make the sauce, heat a saucepan over high heat and add the meat.  Break up with a spoon as it browns and cook until no longer pink.  Add the red pepper flakes, garlic, and some salt, and cook another minute or so.  Add in the tomatoes and oregano, lower to medium, and cook covered about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, taste and season with salt and pepper to your liking.

To make the filling, combine the cottage cheese, egg and some salt in a bowl.  Mix well until smooth and combined, then stir in 1/2 of the mozzarella, 3/4 of the chives, and the rest of the lemon zest.

Cook the shells according to the box instructions in salted water until al dente.  Be careful not to overcook or the shells will fall apart as you fill them.  Drain and let cool until you can comfortably handle them.

Spread 1/3 of the sauce across the bottom of the baking dish.  Fill each shell with the cheese filling, arranging them in a single layer across the dish.  Ladle the remaining sauce over the shells and sprinkle with the rest of the mozzarella cheese.  Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, then another 15 minutes uncovered.  Sprinkle with the remaining chives and serve hot.

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