Inspiration by the foot: Spinach Fettuccine with Cauliflower and Bacon

Roasting cauliflower mellows its flavor, helping it blend deliciously with sautéed bacon, red bell pepper, onion, garlic and spinach pasta. Recipe below.

Inspiration can come from the least likely places. A photograph of cauliflower and sneakers, for instance.

I’d been thinking about doing something with pasta recently. Not actively thinking about it, mind you, but just setting it on simmer on a mental back burner. I figured sooner or later, something would spark an idea. This amusingly strange photo did.

Laura over at What I Like took it to illustrate just how hefty the cauliflower was that she’d found at the market, adding “and I suppose I should mention that I have quite big feet” to further impress us with its size. The wonderful, weird incongruity of the photo Continue reading “Inspiration by the foot: Spinach Fettuccine with Cauliflower and Bacon” →

A tofu-free vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish: Gnocchi with Roasted Root Vegetables

Seasonal roasted root vegetables turn homemade gnocchi into a satisfying vegetarian main course or a flavorful, colorful side. Recipes below.

At Thanksgiving, my role in the kitchen is pretty much limited to carving the turkey and maybe making a salad. In keeping with that tradition, I’m going to turn Blue Kitchen over to Marion for this post. Be sure to stick around for a couple of other non-traditional dishes that are traditions in our house. You’ll find the links at the end of the Kitchen Notes below.

This dish is to welcome our family members who are vegetarians to our Thanksgiving table. We don’t want to relegate them to the gulag of side dishes, and we want to prepare something honoring the time of year, the occasion and our family memories.

The answer, for those of us [see Kitchen Notes] who won’t ever allow Tofurkey in the house: Gnocchi. For us, this is something handmade, homemade and, with these beautiful roasted vegetables, transcending its humble origins—as simple and honest as our love for one another.

Gnocchi—not under that name—was a regular part of our family meals when I was a child. I am not sure how my mother—whose cooking style was definitely prewar Eastern European—came to make this pasta. Continue reading “A tofu-free vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish: Gnocchi with Roasted Root Vegetables” →

Casserole of Roasted Mushrooms: Perfect with wild or not-so-wild mushrooms

An assortment of roasted mushrooms, onions, garlic, spinach, ricotta cheese, spinach and pasta make for a robust, deeply satisfying vegetarian casserole that’s perfect for chilly autumn. Recipe below.

roasted-mushrooms-casserole

Recently we received a review copy of Edible Wild Mushrooms of Illinois and Surrounding States: A Field-to-Kitchen Guide by Joe McFarland and Gregory M. Mueller, published by University of Illinois Press. Since Marion is by far the bigger authority on mushrooms in our kitchen, I’ve turned the book—and the kitchen—over to her this week.

One of the things that surprised us when Terry started this blog three years back was the unexpected cool opportunities and, well, freebies like this, wafting down into our kitchen. This book is one of the most terrific of all these gifts. I. love. this. book. It is both attractive and useful. For those who live in the Midwest and who love mushrooms, but who don’t know much about finding them in the wild, this book is brilliant—direct, charming and, best of all, smart. Its hallmarks are clarity, safety and deliciousness. When you open it up, one of the first things you see is a yellow warning triangle with a skull and crossbones and the words DO NOT IGNORE THIS WARNING—MUSHROOM POISONING CAN BE FATAL.

Yes, it can. Deadly poisonous mushrooms are common throughout the Midwest and, indeed, throughout the world. Even in winter. As the authors note, “Finding wild mushrooms in Illinois is incredibly easy. They’re everywhere. But that’s the problem.”

And it is a problem the authors show you how to address. First, be safe. Continue reading “Casserole of Roasted Mushrooms: Perfect with wild or not-so-wild mushrooms” →

Lingering in the Mediterranean: Spaghetti with Seafood, Almonds, Capers and Parsley

A host of Mediterranean flavors come together in this quick, delicious seafood pasta. Recipe below.

seafood-spaghetti

Since our recent Washington, DC visit and Mellen’s amazing seafood bourride, we’ve continued to think a lot about Mediterranean cuisine. So when we came across the sumptuous cookbook Olives and Oranges: Recipes and Flavor Secrets from Italy, Spain, Cyprus, and Beyond, we knew we’d be cooking more than a few things based on recipes we found here.

The authors of this beautiful cookbook know a thing or two about the region’s food. As the daughter of a foreign correspondent, Sara Jenkins had lived in Italy, France, Spain, Lebanon and Cyprus by the time she was a teen. She put her love of Mediterranean flavors to work as chef of New York City restaurants such as Il Buco, I Coppi, Mangia and Porchetta. Co-author Mindy Fox is editor of La Cucina Italiana and a former editor at Saveur. She has written for many magazines and collaborated on a number of cookbooks. Alan Richardson supplies the amazing photographs.

The book opens with what Jenkins calls “My Flavor Pantry,” a comprehensive description of oils, vinegars, olives, seasonings, herbs, spices, anchovies, cured meats, pastas, legumes and more, all crucial ingredients in the Mediterranean kitchen. Then she takes us from small plates and salads through pastas, risottos, fish and meats, right on up to sweets and cordials—more than 140 recipes in all, divided into quick-cook and slow-cook categories. Continue reading “Lingering in the Mediterranean: Spaghetti with Seafood, Almonds, Capers and Parsley” →

Seafood Bourride: A delicious, creative mix of Mediterranean flavors

There are countless variations on bourride, a traditional Mediterranean seafood soup/stew. This one, prepared by our friend Mellen and served over Israeli couscous, was the best thing we ate by far on a weekend trip to Washington, DC. Recipe below.

mellen-seafood-bourride2

When I started Blue Kitchen way back in the fall of aught-six, I had great plans for having occasional guest cooks do posts here. So far, I’ve failed miserably. Aside from Marion [a co-conspirator here, really, not a guest], I’ve only had one guest cook, the lovely Patricia of Technicolor Kitchen, who made her delicious Brazilian Rice and Beans. When I smelled this wonderfully fragrant stew percolating in Mellen’s kitchen, I knew it was high time I made good on my plans.

Our friends Mellen and Steve live in a beautiful 1800s house in the historic, convenient and cosmopolitan DuPont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC. The neighborhood is home to foreign embassies, ethnic restaurants, art galleries and shops—and is the center of DC’s vibrant nightlife. So when they invited us to come visit them for a long weekend, it took very little arm twisting to get us there. Mellen and Steve—and Mellen’s kids Madeleine and Taylor—were gracious hosts. Madeleine even gave up her room for us. The whole weekend, conversation flowed like wine. So did the wine, often on their rooftop deck.

In today’s second post, I’ll talk about some of the DC stuff we did on our visit, with a focus on food. But now I’m going to concentrate on this delicious seafood stew/soup. A bourride [boo-REED] is a Mediterranean fish soup, something like a bouillabaisse but with a consistency more like stew. There are probably as many variations on it as there are cooks who make it, and options vary wildly, from suspiciously quick and simple to complex and slow-cooking. Many use thick slices of toasted bread as a base, others call for potatoes. Mellen uses large, pearly Israeli couscous. One common thread among all recipes, though, is making the most of plentiful fresh seafood in the region. Continue reading “Seafood Bourride: A delicious, creative mix of Mediterranean flavors” →

Five easy meals for summer

With the fourth of July weekend in the rearview mirror, summer is officially in full swing. And as much as we may like to cook, there’s no shortage of diversions ready to lure us from the kitchen. These five recipes run the gamut, from quick cooking to outdoor cooking to no cooking at all. Gathered from the Blue Kitchen archives, they’ll help you get great summer meals on the table with minimal time and effort in the kitchen.

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1. Tomato Basil Salsa Cruda with Pasta

Cooking doesn’t get much easier than this—salsa cruda is Italian for uncooked sauce. The only thing you cook for Tomato Basil Salsa Cruda with Pasta is the pasta itself. The hot pasta warms the salsa of raw, chopped tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil, filling the kitchen with a big, delicious fragrance. And the uncooked salsa slightly cools the pasta, making for a light summery meal.

spicy-turkey-burger

2. Spicy Turkey Burgers

In the days before air conditioning, a separate summer kitchen was sometimes added to homes to keep the heat of cooking out of the house. Today, the ubiquitous grill Continue reading “Five easy meals for summer” →

The milder side of garlic: Linguine with green garlic and shrimp

Green garlic adds its subtle touch to a simple, sublime supper. Recipe below.

green-garlic-pasta

A quick note: Green garlic inspired two recipes this week. After you finish this post, be sure to stick around for Pan-grilled Crostini with Green Garlic and Chevre.

This is not at all what I had in mind for this week’s post. But then there we were at the Logan Square Farmers Market on Sunday, looking at beautiful bunches of green garlic at the Videnovich Farms booth. Green garlic is young garlic harvested before the cloves form. They’re similar to scallions and leeks in appearance, and the entire plant is edible. The taste is much more delicate than mature garlic.

I’d never actually cooked with green garlic before, so my first stop was the Internet. And the first thing I found was a New York Times article—“Garlic Defanged”—in which San Francisco chef Daniel Patterson confessed his dislike for garlic [well, actually more of an irrational fear of it], then sang the praises green garlic as “its sweeter, more likable offspring.” This was not a promising start for me. I love garlic. A lot. In fact, I’m sometimes frustrated that the big olfactory rush of garlic hitting a hot pan is usually greatly diminished by the time you’re plating whatever you’ve cooked.

But Patterson goes on to call green garlic “a transformational ingredient, one that can remain in the background while making the elements around it better.” Okay, I was interested again. I studied the recipes he includes in the article, particularly one for Linguine with Green Garlic Clam Sauce. It seemed to have a little too much going on to let the green garlic shine through—to me, it had to play a bigger role, if a subtle one, in whatever I ended up cooking with it. Continue reading “The milder side of garlic: Linguine with green garlic and shrimp” →

Quick, creamy and alliterative: Pasta with peas, prosciutto and Parmesan

Fresh peas, barely sautéed, lend a taste of spring to Fettuccine with Peas and Prosciutto. Recipe below.

THE HARDEST PART OF COOKING WITH FRESH ENGLISH PEAS, at least for us, is getting the peas home from the produce market. Typically, I will be driving, and Marion will be shelling peas, alternately feeding me handfuls and devouring them herself. By the time we arrive home, we’re left with nothing but a bagful of empty pea pods. But I was determined to make this pasta dish, so the peas rode safely home in the trunk this time. Continue reading “Quick, creamy and alliterative: Pasta with peas, prosciutto and Parmesan” →

Weeknight cooking from the pantry: Linguine with Red Clam Sauce

By keeping a few simple canned ingredients in your pantry, you can have this quick, lively pasta in under a half an hour. Recipe below.

WE ORIGINALLY CAME ACROSS THIS RECIPE in Men’s Health magazine, where it was published in an anonymously written column aiming to provide men with simple, nutritious, inexpensive recipes. This was a couple of years before its author, James Beard Award winner David Joachim, published A Man, a Can, a Plan: 50 Great Guy Meals Even You Can Make. Continue reading “Weeknight cooking from the pantry: Linguine with Red Clam Sauce” →

Eternal City, quick meal: Pasta and Chickpeas

“One of Rome’s favorite humble dishes,” pasta e ceci, comes together quickly, deliciously with the aid of pancetta and garlic. Recipe below.

As with most national cuisines, the food of Italy is very much a collection of individual regional cuisines. Sure, there are national common threads, but there are also distinct differences. From Piedmont in the North, known for its cheeses, wines, white truffles and quality herbs to Sicily at the Southern tip, melding Arab and Northern techniques in dishes heavy on seafood and simple peasant ingredients [and a wonderful touch with rich sweets], to Tuscany in the middle, whose food has been described as being “of the earth”—wild game, cured meats, crusty breads and some of Italy’s best olives.

This Valentine’s Day, I was introduced to yet another Italian regional cuisine with a wonderful gift, an unfortunately out-of-print cookbook, Roma: Authentic Recipes from In and Around the Eternal City. I don’t know about you, but I’d never thought of a distinctly Roman cuisine before. Major capitals are such magnets for people from everywhere, each bringing and sharing their own foods, that it’s hard to imagine them having their own food personalities. Well, I’m happy to report that I’m wrong. Author Julia Della Croce and photographer Paolo Destefanis take us on a tour through the history of food in Rome and then sit us down at the table, serving up dish after delicious dish. Marion often says that if she gets one really good recipe from a cookbook, something she’ll make again and again, the book has earned its place on the bookshelf. If this simple, hearty dish is any indication, I think this book will earn its place many times over. Continue reading “Eternal City, quick meal: Pasta and Chickpeas” →