Tagliatelle with Prosciutto and Orange

I'll just cut to the chase and let you know that this might be my absolute favorite pasta recipe.  Ever.  Ever.

I think I'd eat damn-near anything that had prosciutto in it so I was already hooked when I first read this recipe...but pairing it with orange just makes it sublime.  The orange adds sweetness to counterbalance the saltiness of the prosciutto, and it also adds a brightness that you really need when making pasta.  The combination is just so, so perfect.

Gush, gush, gush...

So just promise me you'll try this one, okay?  It's really that amazing.

TAGLIATELLE WITH PROSCIUTTO AND ORANGE
Recipe from The Bitten Word (who got it from Bon Appétit)
Serves 4

12 oz. egg tagliatelle or fettuccine (preferably fresh)
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
2 oz. thinly sliced prosciutto, torn into 1" pieces
Zest and juice of 1 orange
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Season with salt; add pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until 1 minute before al dente, about 2 minutes for fresh pasta, longer for dried.  Drain, reserving 1/4 cup pasta water.
2. Meanwhile, melt butter in a large heavy nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add prosciutto; sauté until browned, about 3 minutes.
3. Add reserved pasta water, orange juice, half of zest, and cream to the skillet; bring to a boil.  Add pasta; cook, stirring, until sauce coats pasta and pasta is al dente, about 1 minute.  Season with salt and pepper.  Stir in cheese and divide among warm bowls.  Garnish with remaining zest.

NOTE ON KID-FRIENDLINESS: Bug LOVED this, every bit of it.  I did omit the zest garnish and the ground pepper on top but, other than that, I didn't need to alter it for her at all.

NOTE ON WINE PAIRING: There was so much going on here so I consulted my handy-dandy WHAT TO DRINK WITH WHAT YOU EAT.  Riesling is the way to go with this dish; specifically, I went with the Pierre Sparr that I picked up for a steal at Trader Joe's.  Delicious.

Eat, drink, and try this recipe!

Ham and Cheese Waffles

Happy Monday, all - how was your weekend?  Those of you who are following along with me, reading FRENCH WOMEN DON'T GET FAT, how did you fare?  I had a lovely weekend with many, maaany indulgences; my Friday night was positively Bacchanalian.  But that's one thing I love, among many, about Mireille Guiliano's philosophy: have fun now and compensate later.  I fared a bit better on Saturday, and Sunday I got right back on track with much more realistic portions of both food and drink.  This morning it's back to walking and light meals.  And I already feel a difference.  I do. I may not actually be lighter but I certainly feel it.  The biggest contributing factor to that, I think, is that I'm no longer eating until I'm full...I'm eating until I'm satisfied...which are two totally different things.  Even Adam said to me, "I forgot how great it feels not to be stuffed!"  Adam and I are thoroughly enjoying rediscovering flavors and textures, and Bug said that my walks along the river sound nice and she'd like to join me.  I feel like our household has come back online.

I'm fully engrossed in Chapter 6 of FRENCH WOMEN DON'T GET FAT where Mireille Guiliano is discussing the importance of seasonality.  Those of you who have tasted a summer tomato from the farmers' market and compared it to the flimsy things available from other countries in the winter will know what I'm talking about.  Eating foods in season is a key secret for the French woman (though, is it really a secret?) Here is a passage from FWDGF:

In the end, seasonality is the key to the French woman's psychological pleasure in food - the natural pleasure of anticipation, change, the poignant joy we take in something we know we shall soon lose and cannot take for granted.

Man, I love that.  Just...love.  I never embraced seasonality before "going French" and, once I did, it was a whole new world.  Now, am I major stickler for it?  No.  I have been known to buy a pint or two of cherry tomatoes to get me through the winter.  But asparagus or strawberries?  I never (seriously, never) buy them out of season because I feel like they are just that much better in season than out.  I'm very lucky in that I have the Union Square farmers' market a short walk from my apartment so I get a lot of my produce there.  But Fresh Direct (a grocery delivery service in NYC) also has a ton of seasonal, local options.  And I know other cities and towns around the U.S. are the same - when we lived in Olympia, WA, there was a gorgeous market, and my parents living in Folsom, CA also have great access to local, seasonal produce.  Seek out your local markets if you can.

So, speaking of seasons, this is the time of year when the California girl in me is freaking out: my friends and family on the West Coast are already enjoying asparagus and the like...and the Northeast is still in hard-core root vegetable weather.  I'm So Over Winter Produce.  It's this time of year that I question my decision to live in this region (don't worry; I get over it).  So I end up making things like Ham and Cheese Waffles:

These have the perfect interplay between salty and sweet and, with a little crunchiness on the outside, these waffles are intensely satisfying.  I served a little spinach salad on the side, and it was a lovely breakfast-as-dinner meal. (SEASONALITY NOTE: I get my spinach from Satur Farms through Fresh Direct.  Satur Farms is based in Long Island but they do grow in Florida during the winter months)

HAM AND CHEESE WAFFLES
Recipe from Bon Appétit (March 2012 issue)
Makes 12 waffles

1 3/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large egg whites
3 large egg yolks
1 cup (2 sticks) melted butter
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup soda water (I used seltzer, which worked fine)
1 cup thin strips of ham
1 cup sharp white cheddar, grated
Non-stick vegetable oil spray

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Heat waffle iron until very hot.
2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites in a medium bowl until medium-soft peaks form.
4. Whisk egg yolks, butter, buttermilk, and soda water in a medium bowl; gradually whisk into dry ingredients.  Gently fold in egg whites (don't overstir!).
5. Coat waffle iron with non-stick spray.  Pour small amount of batter onto iron (amount of batter needed will vary according to machine).  Scatter about 1 tbsp. ham and 1 tbsp. cheese over each waffle.  Add a small amount of batter to cover.  Cook until golden brown and cooked through.  Transfer to a baking sheet; keep waffles warm in oven between batches.  Serve with butter and warm maple syrup (I also liked jam on mine).

NOTE ON KID-FRIENDLINESS: It's waffles.  Always a hit.  I made one waffle with no ham or cheese for Bug.  But she finished it and wanted more...so she just ate a ham-and-cheese waffle and loved it.  She ate more leftovers the next day.  Instead of a spinach salad on the side, Bug got apple slices.

A NOTE ON FRENCHNESS: Yep, this is how we eat while we're embracing a French lifestyle and even losing weight.  The key is portion control.  Pre-2005...and even two weeks ago...I would have eaten two full squares, maybe more.  Not this time.  I had one square and stopped: was I satisfied?  I decided to have half of another one.  Delicious.  Then I stopped.  Eating only 25% less may not seem like much but it is little choices like this that add up over time.

WINE NOTES: Yep, I've got wine notes for waffles.  Treat it like brunch and go for bubbles: Prosecco, Cava, or Champagne.  I'm a particular fan of the Llopart Rosé Brut Reserve Cava 2008, which I get from Fresh Direct - the pink hue has such a celebratory feel to it.

Eat, drink, and embrace seasonality.

Risotto with Leeks and Shiitake Mushrooms

Risotto is one of my favorite things.  And not just one of my favorite foods but one of my favorite things...ever...out of all things.

I've been in a funk for the last couple days, brought on in large part by an email from Bug's teacher, letting us know about our daughter's defiant behavior on a field trip.  I take this sort of thing so personally and, even if it's not rational, I feel like I have failed in some way.  Ugh.

So it's times like this that I make risotto.  It's a solid 30 minutes of standing in my kitchen and calmly stirring, stirring, stirring.  It's meditative.  It's surprisingly easy to make.  It's comforting.  Rather than running all over the kitchen, I get to stand in one place.  I can even make it with a glass of wine firmly in hand.

I have had the recipe for this risotto from Bon Appétit since 2007 (here's the original).  Inexplicably, I let it sit and never made it.  I've made some changes to the recipe I linked to - first, I didn't add an actual shaved truffle.  I mean, seriously, who does that?  Especially a family of three during a weekday.  And in this economy.  Additionally, I used vegetable stock, like the recipe says, but it gave the risotto an odd orange color; I'll use chicken stock next time.  Lastly, the recipe said to roast the mushrooms and onion for 45 minutes, but that was waaaay too long in my oven - they were blackened to a crisp and I had to pick out only the good ones.  So beware the cooking time.

RISOTTO WITH LEEKS AND SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS
Adapted from Bon Appétit, September 2007
6 servings

Leeks:
2 large leeks (white and pale green parts only), halved, sliced thick
3/4 cup whipping cream

Mushrooms:
1 pound shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, cut into 1/3-inch-thick slices
1 large onion, halved, thinly sliced lengthwise
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1 tablespoon white or black truffle oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves

Risotto:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, divided
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups arborio rice or medium-grain white rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
5 cups hot low-sodium chicken broth (Note: if you run out while making the risotto, just add water)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons white or black truffle oil (optional)

Chopped fresh parsley
Freshly grated Parmesan

1. For the leeks: Bring leeks and cream to a boil in heavy medium saucepan.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer until leeks are tender and cream is thick, stirring often, about 15 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper. (Do ahead: Can be made 1 day ahead.  Cover and chill.  Rewarm before using.)

2. For mushrooms: Preheat oven to 400 degrees, Fahrenheit.  Toss all ingredients on rimmed baking sheet.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast until mushrooms are tender and light brown around edges, stirring occasionally, about 35 minutes.  (Do ahead: Can be made 2 hours ahead.  Let stand at room temperature.)

3. For risotto: Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until beginning to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add rice; stir 1 minute.  Add wine and stir until almost all liquid is absorbed, about 1 minute.  Add 1 cup hot broth.  Simmer until broth is almost absorbed, stirring often, about 4 minutes.  Add more broth, 1 cup at a time, allowing each addition to be absorbed before adding next and stirring often, until rice is tender and mixture is creamy, about 30 minutes longer.  Stir in leek mixture, mushroom mixture, remaining 2 tablespoons butter, cheese, and (if desired) truffle oil.  Transfer to large bowl, sprinkle with parsley, and serve.  (Alternatively, you can transfer the risotto to individual bowls and serve that way.)

NOTE ON KID-FRIENDLINESS: I made this kid-friendly in the last step.  Before adding the leeks and mushrooms to the risotto, I transferred the plain risotto to a bowl for Bug and garnished heavily with Parmesan.  The heavy use of Parmesan helps mask the pieces of chopped onion in the risotto.

Eat, drink, and stir your way out of a funk.

Wine-Marinated Grapes

Menu planning is difficult. Every weekend, I look through my cookbooks and notebooks to decide what I'm going to make for the week ahead. But even with the hundreds of recipes available, sometimes I want to change things up a bit.

I follow about a hundred food blogs so you can imagine how inundated I am with recipes every day. When I see a particular recipe I love, I email myself a link to that blog post. Then I tag it with "Recipes" in my Gmail. So anytime I feel dissatisfied with all the books and all the ripped-out magazine pages (I know, poor me, right?), I turn to my email. Which is how I discovered this gem: Wine-Marinated Grapes, which I virtually dog-eared from the blog Thursday Night Smackdown. I dog-eared it in 2008.

I was looking for inspiration this past Saturday. Adam was out of town, visiting his own Soul Twin (husband to my own Soul Twin), and Bug was wiped out from a 3-day camping trip. Which is code for she-was-going-to-sleep-a-lot-and-watch-lots-of-TV. So what to do with all that free time? Make drunk grapes!

Michelle at Thursday Night Smackdown got the recipe from Bon Appetit...and aptly, brilliantly named the post "The Snozzberries Taste Like Snozzberries". Come on, children's literature folks, you know where that line is from. God, the parallels of food and kids' lit never cease to amaze me.

ANYWAY, the recipe is ridonkulously easy. Click the Bon Appetit link above - you'll see. And here's where I might scare away potential dinner guests (and maybe even the ones in current rotation): the recipe requires a bottle of dry white wine and I used a bottle of white Zin that a guest had brought over for dinner. White. Zin. I am not drinking that. Ever. And this is the moment where everyone who ever comes over to my house for dinner (and reads this blog) panics. So, for that, I am sorry.

One thing that Michelle mentions is that you can strain the marinating liquid and save it for wine spritzers. I was skeptical. I mean, wine spritzers? With white Zin? A little froofy, right? Oh, no. This was soooo good:

The wine, the grape juice, and the lemon zest are rather sublime. Add a splash of seltzer and a couple of lime slices and you have the perfect summer apertif. Really wonderful.

This is a ridiculously long blog post about drunk grapes but I can't resist. What a fun way to spend my Saturday afternoon while Bug was watching Wizards of Waverly Place.

Eat, drink, and snozz some berries.

Friday morsels

Sooooo much to tell all of you about but sooooo little time. Here are a few bullet points:

- Nightshade Kittytoes (don't you love that name?!) has an interesting post up about Burger King and nutrition: apparently Burger King subjected villagers in Africa to a taste test between the Whopper and the Big Mac? NK asks for ideas on how to fix the problem. Let's start with significant subsidies for local farmers who sell at local markets. Revamp the FDA, USDA, DofA...it's a big ol' mess and it's high time someone fixed it. Dismantle the whole damn thing and start fresh, I say. Shouldn't bringing our troops home free up some cash?

- You won't believe what the Washington Post is spewing about children's and young adult literature. I thought we were sooo over this, but I guess we have to go there again. I'll save you my own rant and just send you over to Librarilly Blonde.

- What will they think of next? Customizable M&Ms!!! Thanks, Rachel!

- Ramona may finally be turned into a movie. I find her darling in print...I suspect I may want to slap her big-screen incarnation.

- I may be vocal about the fact that I don't bake, but that doesn't stop me from ogling others' delicious confections. My latest food porn is Clotilde's Flourless Poppyseed Cake. The offer is open again, readers: you make this for me, bring it over, and I'll serve you a phenomenal dinner. Wine included.

- Nick Kristof suggests to Obama renaming the Department of Agriculture for "change we can believe in."

- Got blog envy? I know I do. How do these people find the time????

Eat, drink, and finish your holiday shopping!

Thanksgiving: In Photos

Lest you read my previous post and think that I didn't document everything about Thanksgiving, I am here to reassure you that I took LOTS of pictures (or Adam did).  Here was our menu:

- Pork Loin Roast with Chestnuts (from The French Kitchen)

- Apple-Turnip Mashed Potatoes (from Southern Living)

- Wild Rice with Roasted Grapes and Walnuts (from Bon Appétit)

- Blackberry Crisp (the Soul Twin brought frozen wild blackberries

 that she gathered herself and used them in place of the apples in Ina Garten's recipe from Barefoot Contessa's Parties)

Now I'm going to let the photos speak for themselves:

For goodness sake, I have the most ridiculous hair!

"Would you like some fresh ground pepper with that?"

"Oh, honey, I think we could ALL use some fresh pepper."

(My eternal love if you know where this line is from)

The finished product.  Think we're a fancy schmancy family?  Check out the plastic wine glass with water for Kiddo.  You gotta agree that un-glams the table a bit!

I swear, this looked much more beautiful in person!

The motley crew (bottom left, clockwise): my other husband, the Soul Twin, Kiddo, yours truly, and the Husband.

Eat, drink, and happy holidays!

Top 10 Cooking Books

I’ve run across a few Top 10 Cookbook Lists lately, namely over at The Amateur Gourmet and this article in The Star. I had heard of most of them and own quite a few; luckily, there were none that I took real issue with. Adam (The Amateur Gourmet, not my husband) mentions The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook “not to cook from, just to have.” I see what he’s saying – there are definitely books I keep around because they’re beautiful but I don’t really use them. However, I certainly wouldn’t put those books in my Top10.

So you see what’s coming, right? Yep, I have to do a Top 10 of my own. These are the 10 Books I Could Not Live Without in my Crappy NYC Kitchen:

1. Barefoot Contessa (all of them) – Ina Garten. I have all but Parties! and I use them multiple times a week. Most recipes are manageable for the novice cook. Note: her recipes aren’t terribly friendly for the one- to two-person family; her serving size is usually for 6-8 people, which always makes for a ton of leftovers for our 3-person family.

2. Field Guide to Produce: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Fruit and Vegetable at the Market by Aliza Green. Truly, I couldn’t live without this. It tells you the origin of every fruit and vegetable, including when it is in season, how to store it, what to look for when buying, and complementary flavors. Amazon has the Look Inside feature on this one so you can browse through it.

3. Patricia Wells’ Trattoria by Patricia Wells. Tough call because I love her Vegetable Heaven as well, but Trattoria is still my go-to book for simple, fresh, easy recipes. No beautiful pictures in this one…just beautiful food.

4. The French Market: More Recipes from a French Kitchen by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde. Classic French food without being pedantic or clichéd. Beautiful color photos of France.

5. The New Food Lover’s Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst. Another resource I can’t live without. Especially when my daughter asks me, every meal, which foods contain vitamin C – I’ve looked up apples, mushrooms, and many more… Also gives brief histories and discusses different varieties and preparations.

6. Timing is Everything: The Complete Timing Guide to Cooking by Jack Piccolo. I don’t live and die by the times listed in this book; however, when I have dealt with an unfamiliar cut of meat or a new vegetable, this book has been invaluable at giving me a cooking guideline.

7. What to Drink with What You Eat by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. As I mentioned before, the definitive guide.

8. Cooking with Jamie and Jamie’s Italy by Jamie Oliver. I’m hooked. Some recipes are super-simple (Fifteen Christmas Salad) and some appear to be so difficult that I can’t attempt them until I have a proper kitchen. A little something for everyone…

9. Everyday Italian by Giada de Laurentiis. I know, total cliché, right? Nevertheless, her recipes are a godsend for a full-time working parent. They’re easy to make with easy-to-find ingredients, not to mention that it actually includes recipes my Kiddo will eat (yay, pasta!). For better or worse, this continues to be one of my go-to cookbooks.

10. I know not technically cookbooks, but I could not live without Saveur, Gourmet, Food and Wine, Cooking Light, and Bon Appétit. I tear out the recipes and keep them in a notebook, which I wrote about here. If you can’t afford subscriptions to all these, your local library should have most, if not all, of them (and they all have lots of content on their websites). But for heavens’ sake, PHOTOCOPY the recipes! Do NOT rip out the pages of the library’s copy. Sheesh, people.

Note: I just checked out Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes from the library and, from my first glimpse through it, I think this could be a new favorite. Cream Puffs in Venice reviewed it.

Eat, drink, and cultivate your food library.

Joie de vivre and all other things French

I wrote on Fuse #8 this morning that Inga Moore’s illustrated version of The Secret Garden was the best thing to see while stuck in an office on a sunny Friday.

I was wrong.

The best thing to see is another one of Lucy Vanel’s market posts over at Lucy’s Kitchen Notebook. Today it’s La Marche de la Croix Rousse, and the photos are stunning (as usual). Lucy took a picture from the top of a hill, looking down on Lyon, and it actually makes you feel, if only for an instant, that you are in France as well. Feeling like some armchair travel today? Go visit Lucy.

This naturally fueled my fire for all things French, being a confessed Francophile. Last week, the New York Times Dining section had an interesting article, “There’ll Always Be a France, Especially in New York,” about the rebirth of old school French restaurants in NYC. For awhile it appeared that traditional French dining was dead in the city, doomed to cookie-cutter “bistros” where the same French warhorses are served year-round (steak au poivre, mussels in broth, frisée salads with lardons and poached egg, etc.). But there seems to be a resurgence of traditional, lovingly created French dishes, like cassoulet. We’ll see… My favorite part of the article, though, is when Alain Ducasse says, “[French cuisine] has never been trendy. That’s what makes it last.”

My latest issue of Bon Appètit (May 2008) is dedicated to travel, and much of that travel involves France. There’s an article, “Ten More Things We Love About France”, that lists, among other things, duck-fat fries! Did I ever post the picture of the duck-fat fries I made at home? Hmmm…I’ll find out and get back to you on that. But the best article was Molly Wizenberg’s “Cooking Life: Everyday Soufflé.” It’s a lovely article that tries to discredit the myth that soufflés are temperamental and difficult and argues that every home cook needs to have a soufflé in their repertoire. Having never tried to make a soufflé, this article completely inspired me to give it a try. I haven’t had time yet but it’s high on my list. Imagine my surprise when I called my best friend and fellow lover of all things French-related (though I speak French and she does not*) to tell her all about this soufflé thing and she nonchalantly says, “Oh, yeah. I’ve done a soufflé.” “You have?!” I asked her, incredulous. Apparently Ina Garten has a blue cheese soufflé that’s a cinch to make. Of course she does. Because Ina is not only a goddess, but the savior and inspiration for all us home cooks. Well, the home cooks I know anyway…

Last, but never least, La Tartine Gourmande has a beautifully photographed blog post up about mackerels. But since this is my French-related post, I have to point out the two phrases on her post: J’leur ai fait leur fête and J’suis cuit. I have never seen the j with the apostrophe like that before a word starting with a consonant. What is that? So I’ve written both phrases down and will have to ask my French professor next time we have class on April 28th. Unless someone can solve the mystery for me before then?

It’s such a stunningly beautiful Friday. Bon appètit, everyone!


*I only feel it necessary to point this out since she has made a soufflé and I have not.