Eggplant. It’s what’s for dinner. Again. Linguine with Japanese Eggplant and Basil

Some eggplant roasted ahead of time is the base of this weeknight quick vegetarian pasta. Basil, garlic and Parmesan are the other key ingredients. Recipe below.

Our tiny, abundant garden continues to be, well, abundant. So one recent evening, I came home to find Marion roasting eggplants, beets and potatoes. Okay, the potatoes were from the fridge, not our garden, but they weren’t getting any fresher. The beets and potatoes were sides for dinner that night. A few nights later, I turned the eggplant, some basil from the garden and a few always-on-hand ingredients into this quick dinner. Continue reading “Eggplant. It’s what’s for dinner. Again. Linguine with Japanese Eggplant and Basil” →

A winter root vegetable gets a holiday-rich creamy makeover: Puréed Parsnips

Naturally sweet parsnips turn lusciously silky when cooked in cream, milk and butter. Perfect for holiday dinners—or everyday indulgence. Recipe below.

A few weeks ago, Terry wrote about his duck-filled dinners in Omaha. Well, while he was eating all sorts of duck, I was delving into some of my own favorites—not least, wonderful offal. My first Omaha dinner at La Buvette? Lamb kidneys on a bed of puréed parsnips. I just loved the whole thing—the intense, meaty chunks of kidney, the fluffy bed of parsnips. The dark sauce pooling around the white purée and a hearty big red wine alongside. It was a great meal for an autumn evening after a day on the road. And the parsnips were a marvel: at once sweet and savory and silky and faintly earthy. They were just wonderful, and we knew that when we got home, we would have to make some. Continue reading “A winter root vegetable gets a holiday-rich creamy makeover: Puréed Parsnips” →

Getting playful with pesto: five recipes improvise on a summer standard

Pesto is a quintessential summer meal maker—garden fresh, versatile and requiring little or no cooking. Here are five pesto recipes, from the traditional basil to creative takes using sage, cilantro and even kale.

A sudden abundance of basil in our garden has us enjoying quick weeknight—and lazy weekend—dinners of simply prepared pesto with pasta. But it doesn’t always have to team up with pasta. It can be tossed with cooked potatoes and green beans, spooned over grilled meats and fishes—even smeared on crusty bread as a snack or appetizer. And it doesn’t always require basil, as some of these recipes demonstrate. Continue reading “Getting playful with pesto: five recipes improvise on a summer standard” →

Cheesy, tangy, glorious: Cauliflower Kale Gratin

Steamed cauliflower and kale are tossed with a béchamel sauce and two cheeses, topped with panko and baked into a rich, tangy gratin. Recipe below.

This is what comes of reading a cookbook while riding around town hungry. On Saturday, we had an errand-filled day, hunting hither and yon for everything from geraniums to major appliances. On the way out the door, I grabbed the wonderful cookbook Off the Menu, which we’ve already written about here. Maybe reading cookbooks while hungry is not the brightest decision on the planet, and maybe it made me kind of hangry, but it also inspired this recipe. Like so many things on Blue Kitchen, it’s a mashup—in this case, a collision of two dishes from this fun, welcoming book. Continue reading “Cheesy, tangy, glorious: Cauliflower Kale Gratin” →

A simple classic pasta, suddenly very much on trend: Cacio e Pepe

With only four ingredients—spaghetti, Pecorino Romano, salt and black pepper—this rustic Roman favorite is enjoying a moment. Recipe below.

I rarely find myself ahead of the curve on anything. When I first shared my version of cacio e pepe—a popular favorite in Roman trattorias—five years ago today, it was adapted from a cookbook published back in 2002. So imagine my surprise when the humble four-ingredient pasta started lighting up the Internet a couple of months ago. Continue reading “A simple classic pasta, suddenly very much on trend: Cacio e Pepe” →

Biscuits and the “meatiest” vegetarian red eye gravy you’ll ever make

While Blue Kitchen continues a brief break, we’re sharing some of our favorite dishes from the archives. This week, it’s Drop Biscuits and Vegetarian Red Eye Gravy, so umami-rich it might even fool a meat lover. (Also, with this post, we celebrate Blue Kitchen’s ninth anniversary.)

AT DINNER WITH FRIENDS THE OTHER NIGHT, one of the diners at our table exclaimed over a vegetarian entrée on the menu. I realized at that moment that I will never willingly become a vegetarian. If there are meat or seafood options on a menu, I can’t get excited about vegetarian choices. Or as I put it to our companions, “It would take a death threat from my doctor to make me turn vegetarian.” [Read more here…]

Green beans get a surprising seasonal refresh: Charred Green Beans with Apricots

Vietnamese fish sauce adds a subtle unifying umami hit to the crisp green beans and sweet apricots in this colorful, seasonal side dish. Recipe below.

We don’t do enough side dishes here. Unfortunately, we only tend to think of this when we actually post one. So when this recipe showed up in a recent Food & Wine email, we made it pretty much the same day—of course with our own variations. Continue reading “Green beans get a surprising seasonal refresh: Charred Green Beans with Apricots” →

Sautéed Tofu with Ginger and Garlic, and thoughts of a semi-reformed carnivore

Soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar and aromatics dial up the umami in this sautéed tofu main course. Recipe below.

Our friend Carolyn recently shared a meme on Facebook about preparing tofu. It said this: Step 1: Throw it in the Trash. Step 2: Grill some Meat. Not that long ago, I would have laughed even harder than I did. Continue reading “Sautéed Tofu with Ginger and Garlic, and thoughts of a semi-reformed carnivore” →

Bar bites elevated: Blistered Shishito Peppers

Shishito peppers, sautéed until blistered in spots and tossed with lemon juice and salt, are a popular Japanese bar food. Recipe below.

Once again, I am late to the culinary party. Last week, I happened across an article about a 27-year-old becoming the shishito pepper baron of New York. My immediate question was “what’s a shishito pepper?” The short answer is they’re apparently a thing—and have been for a few years now. Continue reading “Bar bites elevated: Blistered Shishito Peppers” →

Tomatillo Salsa Verde, uncooked

This no-cook Tomatillo Salsa Verde tastes as fresh as its ingredients—tomatillos, peppers, red onion, garlic and cilantro. Serve it with chips or over chicken, chops, fish, scrambled eggs… Recipe below.

I am officially smitten with tomatillos. The lively, citrusy relative of the tomato, a key ingredient in Mexican and Central American cooking, is as versatile as it is easy to work with. Apparently I’m not alone in my infatuation. When I told colleagues last week of my Chicken Chili Verde adventures, one said she’d made a big pot of her own the week before. And my creative director shared his go-to salsa recipe, a no-cook salsa verde made of tomatillos and just four other ingredients, one of them being salt. Continue reading “Tomatillo Salsa Verde, uncooked” →