Cooking Simply for a weeknight dinner Guest.

We had a lovely dinner with a friend last night.  A couple of weeks ago we ran into her and her boyfriend at a local restaurant. My husband  and I had only known her casually through yoga, as some one you saw, recognized but did not speak to. The restaurant where we had our encounter was one that was dedicated to fresh, local, and sustainable food. This we thought was a sign. We loved food, they loved food, we loved yoga, they loved yoga, we are an American/Canadian couple, they are an American/Canadian couple, etc. So we made tentative plans for dinner. It turned out that he was leaving for a month and that she would be our only dinner guest this *time*. So we thought we would make it a simple affair (I am hoping that our screaming 3 yr olds who were in a form not seen since the days of Carol Anne in the movie Poltergeist last night did not scare her off).   


We (I cut and chopped, husband cooked) made a winter minestrone from Alice Waters, The Art of Simple Food:Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution.  Here is the adapted recipe.

Winter Minestrone with Root vegetables and Cabbage

• 1 1/2 cups cannellini beans with 1 cup cooking liquid
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 lg finely chopped onion
• 2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• 1tsp dried thyme or 5 sprigs fresh
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tsp salt plus more for seasoning
• 3 cups of water
• 1 sm leek, diced
• 1/2 head of cabbage, thinly cut, boiled in salt water until softened
• 3/4 lbs bite-sized diced turnips
• 1/2 lbs bite sized dice yellow potatoes
• 1 cup cooked small pasta, such as confetti (optional)* I made my own from the left over dough I had by cutting in strips and then making tiny squares (optional. Alice Waters' recipe does not call for it) 
• parsley leaves, grated parmesan cheese & olive oil for garnishing

In a large sauce pan or stock pot, heat olive oil, cook carrots, celery and onion until tender (sweating but not browning). 


Add in garlic, thyme, bay leaf and salt, cook another five mintues. Add water and when at a boil add leek, turnips and potatoes, cook for 15 minutes and taste for salt. 


If using, about 10 minutes from finish add dried pasta** (you may have to add some more liquid to make up for the absorption of the pasta). 


Add cooked beans (and fresh pasta** if you are using) plus bean liquid. Cook for 5 more minutes. If soup is thick add more bean liquid.


Remove bay leaf, serve in individual bowls and garnish with, parsley, grated parmesan cheese and drizzled olive oil.


** We used fresh homemade pasta, so we briefly cooked it separately to remove excess flour and added it in towards the end.




photos by me.

An Adventure in Rome...

OK, maybe not. Who can afford airfare these days? And what to do with the kids, give them to a relative or sherpa them around?  Hmm... no, we'll stick to Italian style family meals in our very own home. Maybe for ambience we'll string up some vines and paint a mural on our ceiling.

Romanesco Cauliflower  & Fresh Pasta 

• One head of Romanesco Cauliflower also called Romanesco Broccoli
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tbsp anchovy paste
• 3 tbsp olive oil plus some for drizzling*
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup grated pecorino cheese plus more for garnish**
• chili flakes (optional)
• flat leaf parsley for garnish
• lemon wedges

For fresh pasta- Recipe from Mark Bittman's 'How to Cook Everything'

Use only half of the yield for this dish.

• 2 cups organic un-bleached flour (I used one cup white & 1 cup whole wheat from a local grain CSA)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 lg eggs, 3 egg yolk
• water if needed

I'm cooking for kids so speed is essential. I have tried to make pasta dough on the counter with a well in the centre of my flour for the eggs and never had much success with it.  I am sure it is touch and practice and one day when I have time I may try it again but for now I will stick to the food processor.

Put flour and salt in a food processor, pulse a couple times to combine. Add eggs and yokes, pulse for an additional 30 secs or until a ball forms. If it is dry add some water slowly, if wet add a bit more flour, a tiny bit at a time.

Wrap in plastic and rest for 30 minutes in the fridge or longer. Can stay there for up to 24 hrs. Then process dough with a pasta machine. Unlike an Italian grandmother I have never been able to roll it out and form little shapes. I use a Kitchen Aid to form sheets then roll it up to cut long strands.

For Sauce:

Cut cauliflower into florets, parboil for 2 mins in a large pot of water (big enough to cook pasta), drain and shock them in cold water. Reserve. Meanwhile keep water at a boil and cook pasta.

In a large fry pan heat olive oil on medium heat. Cook garlic, anchovy paste and chili flakes if using, until you can smell the paste and the garlic is soft, roughly a minute.  Add the cauliflower florets cook for a few minutes more. When pasta is done add the noodles to pan, the cheese and drizzle with enough olive oil so that the noodles do not stick to the pan. Toss mixture and check seasoning.

At the table either just before serving or on individual plates, grate more cheese over top noodles, drizzle with more olive oil and garnish with parsley, fresh pepper and lemon wedge.

*I have a cooking olive oil and a higher quality one for drizzling at the table.
**We use  a microplane grater for our cheese so it is very light.

photos by Jeff.

A use for whole wheat flour.

As mentioned before, my husband and I inherited (about 10lbs) various whole wheat flours from a friend who joined our areas first grain CSA. So when my husband suggested that we have lasagne for dinner last night I quickly volunteered to make the pasta sheets. I learnt a couple of things about the CSA's flour from my Pizza dough making a few nights ago. The flour's texture is both soft and bristly from the finely milled endosperm and the tough bran casing. I suspected these qualities could work to my advantage and make a porous noodle that would grab the sauce. Also, as noted the Pizza dough did not rise so well and pasta dough doesn't need any rising, just a short resting time. We used the fresh sheets to make a Sugar Pie Squash lasagne with ricotta and basil.

And what to do with my excess pasta dough? Makes more sheets and turn them into noodles. I discovered early on that my pasta machine did not do a very good job at cutting noodles into fine ribbons so we problem solved this by simply folding the sheets and cutting them roughly to form uneven and roughly shaped noodles. Thus next day's lunch was Tagliatelle* with a tomato garlic

sauce.

* a rustic porous noodle made with whole grain flours in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Mine resembled torn rags.


Mum and daughter making fresh pasta