Asparagus lemon pesto pasta

nce upon a time, there was a lemon asparagus pasta recipe, and I'm pretty sure it came from epicurious. But try as I might, it would not show itself--not under "asparagus," asparagus pasta" or even "lemon asparagus pasta." Nothing. After a couple of really decent attempts to find it, I gave up and decided I could wing it on feel and taste and memory alone. And sure enough, that worked. This version is slightly different than I remember, but with asparagus, parmesan and lemon in the pot, it is pretty hard to go wrong.


Asparagus lemon pesto
Serves 2 
1 dozen asparagus spears, steamed, tips cut off
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. grated fresh lemon peel
2 Tbsp. grated parmesan
2 Tbsp. pine nuts
3 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh parmesan to taste

Put a large pot of boiling water on for your pasta. Whatever shape you like--I generally like a long strand like linguine or spaghettini for this dish.

While your pasta is cooking, steam the asparagus in a separate pot (or in the microwave, if you like shortcuts like me!) and cut off the tips, saving them for later. Chop the spears and put the them into your food processor with the rest of the ingredients. Pulse for about 20-30 seconds, until the mixture is coarse but consistently so. You may need to stir down the sides of your food processor bowl in the middle of pulsing to achieve that.

The asparagus mixture on it's own is quite lovely. It would make a great bruschetta, or even a pizza topping (with extra cheese, of course!)... really a delectable mixture.

Once your pasta is cooked, drain it but keep some of the cooking water (a cup should do). Toss the pasta with your asparagus mixture and add in some of the pasta cooking water to wet the mixture and melt the cheese into the pasta. Add in the asparagus tips and basil, and season with salt and pepper as well as extra parmesan to taste, and serve.

I love the fresh flavor of the asparagus; it simply screams "Spring!" to me, and I welcome it gladly into the supermarket (especially when it's local and not being flown in from Chile or some such exotic locale)! Thus begins many days of cooking with asparagus, happily.

Here's our Aerogarden in full swing! I took a whack at the basil for this recipe, and now need to scare up a dill-oriented recipe or the dill might take over that side of the kitchen! It's a good problem to have.

Poutine convert in the house

y first memory of poutine was seeing it in the cafeteria at the ski lodge where we spent a great deal of time in my adolescent years. The mountain was called Last Mountain (it's since been renamed Crystal Mountain, whatever, we don't talk about that) and it was about a half-hour from our home. I was in line to get some hot chocolate, probably, and maybe some french fries, but the pictures of the french fries in gravy with some cheese in the mixture looked pretty revolting to me.

That image stuck. From then on, whenever asked "gravy with that?" when ordering fries in Canada, I would automatically say no, and try and keep the edge of my lip from curling in disgust.

So why did I decide to add poutine to the Olympic menu at work this week? I think somewhere along the way in the past couple of decades, while I never actually ate poutine, I decided it really couldn't be THAT bad, right? My brother loves it, and even makes it at home for himself. And my husband stepped out and ordered fries with gravy (he's not so into the cheese part) this past Christmas in Canada and pronounced it yummy. His rationale was that we eat gravy with our mashed potatoes, why not with french fries? Sort of makes sense to me. And, since I have a fundamental belief that cheese makes everything better, poutine definitely seemed like something I would finally need to try.

Here's Wikipedia's take on poutine:
The dish originated in rural Quebec, Canada, in the late 1950s. Several Québécois communities claim to be the birthplace of poutine, including Drummondville (by Jean-Paul Roy in 1964), Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and Victoriaville. One often-cited tale is that of Fernand Lachance, from Warwick, Quebec, which claims that poutine was invented in 1957, when a customer ordered fries while waiting for his cheese curds from the Kingsey cheese factory in Kingsey Falls (now in Warwick and owned by Saputo Incorporated). Lachance is said to have exclaimed "ça va faire une maudite poutine" ("it will make a damn mess"), hence the name. The sauce was allegedly added later, to keep the fries warm longer.

And it gets international press, too... from the New Yorker, Nov. 23, 2009, article by Calvin Trillin:
Poutine was invented in rural Quebec. In recent years, it has rapidly widened its range. National franchise restaurants in Canada like Harvey’s and New York Fries and Burger King now have poutine on the menu even in provinces that are overwhelmingly Anglophone. Canadian chefs with national reputations often do gourmet takes on poutine. Commenting on the results of a nationwide survey last summer, Roy MacGregor wrote that one of the more surprising discoveries was the possibility that “the national food of Canada is now poutine.” Poutine might be an appropriate national dish for a country that prides itself on lumpy multiculturalism.

So how could I not have poutine on the menu?

It was pretty easy, after all. Bought the french fries. Bought the cheese curds. Made the gravy. There's some discussion on the gravy--chicken/turkey stock or beef stock? I went beef stock. And used Emeril's recipe from Food Network:

Poutine gravy
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
2 cups beef stock

In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine the butter and flour. Stir until incorporated. Cook for 12 to 15 minutes for a dark roux. Stir in the stock. Season with salt and pepper. Bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and continue cooking for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and keep warm.

To serve, mound the fries in a bowl or soup plate. Spoon the gravy over the fries and crumble the cheese. Serve immediately.

Cheese curds are certainly encouraged, as authentic poutine flavor relies on the texture of the cheese curds melting. But a good shredded mozzarella should come close. For the lunch on Monday I gave mozzarella  and monterey jack as options along with the fresh cheese curds, which I found online at Beecher's Cheese in Seattle.

So what can I say? I tried it and now I'm in, big time. It's rich, gooey and filling--perfect winter food. And now, post-poutine, it's time for a walk!

Cheesey polenta with black bean soup

Polenta has a reputation for being either quick and easy, or massively time-consuming. My method falls into the quick and easy category. I haven't developed the patience for the 2-hour technique as described so beautifully in Heat by Bill Buford. Maybe one of these days I'll give it a whirl and I'll never turn back... apparently it's just THAT good.

An added factor is that when I want polenta, I usually am not thinking about it two hours in advance. In my southern husband's vernacular, polenta = grits. White or yellow, it matters not. So grits are a common accompaniment to our weekend breakfast extravaganza. It comes together quickly, and as you can see in the picture above, it makes for a hearty lunchtime option as well.

So basic polenta/grits comes together with a very simple formula: 1 cup of water + 1/4 cup of polenta. That makes a hearty serving. I very often make it in the tried and true quadruple form: 4 cups of water + 1 cup of polenta. Bring the water to a rolling boil, add a teaspoon of salt and then whisk in the polenta. Turn the heat down to low, and whisk until it thickens. This usually takes about 10-15 minutes on my stove, and I am very comfortable just putting a lid on the pot and turning my attention elsewhere, coming back for a stir every now and again.

The variations are endless, in terms of adding cheese to the mixture. I've done blue cheese, parmesan as well as cheddar. Each is spectacularly yummy in its own way.

The bowl you see above is a hefty ladle of polenta with another of black bean soup over the top. I mixed in cheddar (generously) to the polenta, and the result was quite pleasing.

My friend the eggplant

I have always liked eggplant parmesan. Eggplant parmagiana. Whatever you want to call it. Oozy goey slices of cheese between slices of fried eggplant. What's not to love? When I was a kid, my dad was not a big eggplant fan, apparently. He has been a late converter to the delights of the aubergine, so while the parents were visiting this last week, I thought I'd make a batch of eggplant parmesan. That thought handily coincided with some magnificent specimens at the local grocery store!

And of course I have to make it more healthfully than the eggplant parmesan of yesteryear. I just can't do the whole fried thing and feel good about it anymore. I can let OTHER people fry my supper (the next night we had burgers and shakes and onion rings from the famed IceBurg), but I just can't bring myself to do it... just trying to keep the universe properly balanced on the grease scale, I suppose. So this is my healthy-ish version.

Eggplant parmesan
3 medium eggplants, sliced to 1/3-inch rounds

Salt the slices lightly and let sit in a colander for 15 minutes or so. There are those who say to salt it to remove any bitterness, and those who say to salt it to get rid of excess moisture. Either way, I salt it, let it sit, and then rinse it off (so how does that help with excess moisture? Don't ask, just do.) and pat it dry.

3 eggs, beaten, mixed with 1 T milk
Breadcrumbs

Heat a skillet or frying pan to medium heat. I use a nonstick electric skillet, so the need for additional oil is minimal. Use olive or vegetable oil as needed. Dip the eggplant slices in the egg mixture, then dredge in breadcrumbs. Cook until both sides are browned nicely (see photo above!).

I have concocted my own homemade marinara in the past, but this time we went straight to the jarred variety and had it easy and still flavorful. Layer the cooked eggplant slices with marinara, grated mozzarella and parmesan in a large baking dish (9 x 13), and top the mixture with more cheese. As you can see from the photo below, I used my REALLY large Le Creuset baking dish and even though I did three layers of eggplant and would normally have been overflowing a 9 x 13 pan, it maybe came half way up the side of this pan!

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes, until the entire mixture is bubbling and the cheese is melted.


Serve with a lovely mixed green salad and crusty bread! And enjoy the leftovers, too. This one is even better warmed the next day.

Oscar night pasta: Angel hair with blue cheese, grapes and croutons!

This is a pasta for the brave blue cheese lover. It all began with a Mark Bittman moment (his NYT blog Bitten is a favorite of mine) over the weekend, and in getting caught up on reading his recipes and blog posts, I got further caught up in the comments... one thing led to another, I got hungry Sunday night just as the Oscars started and my own experiment took off.

Let me say, too, that the photos don't do it justice. I must have been distracted by Hugh Jackman or something...

I had never considered croutons on pasta before. Just didn't really think about it. I'm all about bread salads and such, even croutons on soup of course, but when the writer submitting the recipe mentioned croutons for the crunch factor, I had to give it a whirl. I didn't have the arugula that the original recipe called for, so in looking down in the comments I saw grapes and thought, "Oh yes!" I have always liked grapes and blue cheese together. There's a wonderful local restaurant that has a grape salad on their menu right now that is to die for, so I thought if this is even close to that...

So we begin...

To make your own croutons, cut a loaf of crusty bread into cubes. Mine got a little large, for which I was thankful later--less soggy, a little more crunchy. Toss the bread cubes with oil. I did a mixture of 2 T. olive oil, 2 T. basil grapeseed oil and 2 T. rosemary grapeseed oil. Spread on two baking sheets and bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes, until browned. I switched racks halfway through to get the browning even.

Cook the pasta. I went with angel hair, just loving the thinness. Before draining, reserve a half cup of the cooking liquid. Drain and set aside 2 cups of cooked pasta.

While the pasta is cooking, rinse and cut about 1.5 cups of red grapes (black grapes would also be good and I love their texture). Heat a frying pan over medium high heat and saute the grapes in a little rosemary grapeseed oil. When they are heated through and somewhat seared (happy carmelization with the sugars!), toss them in with the pasta and a half cup of blue cheese crumbles. Drizzle the pasta cooking liquid over and add a half cup of chopped basil. Toss thoroughly, add a handful of croutons and you're good to go. (Too much liquid and you'll lose the blue cheese texture, so go with a light hand on that. You won't need the full half cup.)

I scarfed happily while watching celebrities do their love-fest thing, and life was good!

Pizza with peanuty goodness

The first time I tasted a pizza with peanut sauce (actually I think it was the first time I'd had peanut sauce, period) was in Sydney around 1988, and I thought it was the most ingenious thing ever.

Peanut sauce became a favorite of mine from that time onward (see link to my usual recipe below), and it's a rare day I don't have a homemade tub of it lurking around my fridge somewhere. Nothing jazzes up a bowl of steamed veggies or some noodles more than a dollop of peanut sauce!

But I haven't made pizza with it, at home. I know, what? Why ever not!? Seems like a no-brainer. Peanut sauce on a crust with some veggies... kinda healthy, too. I looked around online to see if this kind of pizza even needed cheese--it's been so long since I've had this in a restaurant I couldn't really remember... but EVERY pizza needs cheese, right?

I had a bit of a no-show on the pizza crust that I started in the breadmaker today (I'm inclined to think it was user error, not an issue with the machine itself), so I went out for premade crusts, which will always work in a pinch.

Here's what I topped it with:

1/2 cup peanut sauce I had knocking around in the fridge

Spread over the premade crust.

Top with:

1/2 c cup shredded carrots

5 steamed asparagus spears, cut in 1/2 inch pieces

1/4 cup chopped red peppers

1/2 cup bean sprouts

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella

Bake for 10-15 minutes at 425 degrees.

This smelled heavenly while it baked and tasted even better once it was out and cut up! Even the somewhat skeptical husband was a fan after a slice or two! Yum-o.

Gnocchi heaven

Little dumplings waiting for their boiling bath!

Cooked and now frying up nicely in some rosemary grapeseed oil. Heavenly smell!

With some chopped chives and parmesan sprinkled on top! Heavenly taste...
I am a big gnocchi fan. Any type, cooked most any way! But the big taste determiner for me is whether they're homemade (or in a restaurant, house-made) or not. "Not" usually means heavy and floury. Made from scratch means lighter, softer, melt-in-your-mouthier. Yum.
So I discovered this recipe for ricotta gnocchi, and another one, and then finally this one (from Martha Stewart, no less) that incorporated butternut squash into the recipe as well. That's always a bonus with me. But none of the recipes were going to work completely on their own to meet my tastes, so I combined a little of one with a little of another, and the most enjoyable lunch was born. And the sweetest thing of all was how easy it was--this wasn't any all-day pasta-making marathon, by any means.
I went with low-fat ricotta and it behaved quite nicely in place of the whole milk variety. If I had more butternut squash on hand, I'd probably have added a bit more of that as well. It was a little mild on the squash flavor, and color-wise was paler than I'd have liked, too. I knew when I added the whole wheat flour that the color would muddy up a bit, but it was worth it to try the less-processed flour, and I am partial to the nuttier flavor of whole wheat, too. All in all, a quite healthy version of gnocchi!
Ricotta and Butternut Squash Gnocchi
(serves 4-6 depending on portion size...)
1 (16-ounce) container of low-fat ricotta
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed roasted butternut squash
1/2 teaspoon salt/
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour + extra for your hands and cutting board

In the bowl of a food processor, mix the ricotta, egg and butternut squash until well combined. Scrape contents into a large bowl and mix in the flour and salt until all ingredients are incorporated. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Check the dough by pinching a bit. It should be a bit tacky. If it clings to your fingers too much, incorporate more flour one tablespoon at a time until you reach a workable consistency. Before shaping, put a large pot of water on the stove to bring to a boil. Sprinkle a baking sheet with flour and set it close to your work space.

Sprinkle your hands and work surface with a little flour. Break off a small orange-sized piece of the dough and roll it into a thick log about 3/4-inch thick.

Cut the log into 3/4" pieces. You can shape them if you want to look more traditional--I left them as natural little pillows...

Transfer this batch to the baking sheet and toss with flour to prevent sticking. Repeat rolling process with the remaining dough.

Add 1 tablespoon of salt to the water and a third of the gnocchi. Gently stir the gnocchi to make sure they don't stick. Once they bob to the surface, let them cook an additional 2 minutes. Remove gnocchi with a slotted spoon and transfer to a colander set over a bowl to finish draining.
I wanted to fry them up lightly with some sage and brown butter, but there was no sage in the house... so I went with a lovely rosemary grapeseed oil that I've used with great success in other recipes, and they fried up splendidly. I boiled and fried up the whole batch so that they wouldn't stick to each other horribly in the fridge.
To top, I grated some parmesan over the top with some chopped fresh chives, and it was glorious!

Yummy nut patties

These little gems are a family favorite. I used to try and make them into balls, like meatballs, but because they aren't really that consistency, they would have a hard time holding together. So gone are nut balls (aren't you relieved?) and here are nut patties.

They are mostly based off An Apple A Day recipe, but largely done by feel and by memory at this point. Today we had them with mashed potatoes and gravy and a broccoli bake, and I'm surprised I got off the couch and went for a ski afterward! But I did. After a bit of a pause, I did.

Nut patties
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 t. salt
1/4 c. finely chopped onion
1/2 c. grated cheddar
1 T. chopped parsley
1 egg
1 c. bread crumbs
1 c. cottage cheese

Mix all ingredients together and from into patties. Fry in a nonstick pan (sprayed with Pam or some such spray, of course, who trusts nonstick anyway?) until brown on both sides. Serve with mushroom gravy.

And enjoy!

Does it get any better than this? Why yes, Virginia, it really does! Leftovers!

Yesterday was our 3rd anniversary, and we wanted to celebrate quietly at home--it had been a long day for both of us and we were looking forward to putting our feet up and catching up on Jack Bauer's latest adventures. Alas, I'd forgotten how brutal 24 can be...

So, I needed some comfort food to go with the drama. We both wanted pasta, and I made a very meaty non-meat marinara for Alan, and went straight to the hard stuff (alfredo) for myself. I have not made anything with full-fat dairy in a very long time, and I will blame the Warm Bunny herself for dragging me back with her green bean gratin recipe. I bought some heavy whip to make a butternut squash gratin for Thanksgiving, and knew I could spare a little for some pasta love.

Here's my standby alfredo. I have made this recipe (times 50) for really big crowds, and it works well to multiply. It is very much a keeper, even if the times between making it need to stretch out further and further as the years go by...

Happy Anniversary Alfredo:

2 T. unsalted butter

1/2 c. cream

1 egg yolk

1/4 c. parmesan

salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, add the cream and simmer. Briefly beat the egg yolk before adding to the cream, stir in the parmesan and warm through. Toss with pasta and devour. Last night I added about 3/4 cup chopped basil, 1/4 cup pinenuts and a generous handful of parmesan. Oh my.

Now very tradtional alfredo won't have the egg yolk, but I'm not a big purist on this, and find it is a good addition without getting too rich. Or so I remembered...

This is NOT an everyday meal. No way. About six mouthfuls in, I was a little overwhelmed with the richness. So my compromise was to add some of Alan's lovely red sauce to it (see below), which cut the richness a bit and I was able to soldier on! I didn't actually make it through my bowl... but I DID rewarm the leftovers for lunch today, and it was even better than last night. If possible.

Yum. Scrum. Love. Pasta. Love. Husband. Happy. Anniversary.