Back to work, guys!

No more dressing up in whimsical costumes and eating a lot of candy (or drinking a lot of booze) - it's Monday morning and you've got to get back to work. I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween weekend. I spent mine sitting around in my pajamas, cooking and watching Sports Night on DVD. This is what happens when I work at four different places all week long. It makes me tired.

One of the best things about fall vegetables is that they are instant comfort food. Mostly they revolve around things like potatoes and squash and they delight in being warm carb-y goodness. This recipe was given to me by my friend Alex many years ago, back in the days from when she knew how to cook and I didn't at all. She made this for me once and I loved it so much, I demanded the recipe and found it again recently, scribbled on the back of an old IRS form in the midst of my bookcase that collapsed (luckily, not on me).

Alex's Butternut Squash Pasta

1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into a large dice (or one package from Trader Joe's)
8 shallots, peeled and halved length wise (I sliced mine)
1 or 2 Tbs brown sugar
2 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 Tbs fresh sage, torn
Parmesan cheese

1 package pasta of your choice

This is super simple, even I could do it before I could cook.

Combine all the ingredients except cheese and pasta in a baking dish (the kind with raised sides - not a sheet).


Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 475 degrees. While this happens, cook your pasta. Take the squash out of the oven and combine with your cooked pasta.


Top with cheese and serve.


This is so good. If you're into the whole salty-sweet thing, this is the dish for you. It's warm and comforting and super flavorful. Thanks to Alex for teaching me how to make it! It is really delicious.

Boo to Fall

As September starts and summer comes to a close, I find myself in a funk. I love summer and I hate winter. I don't mind fall, but I know that winter is just around the corner and there will be no more sunshine, swimming, barbecues or fresh local vegetables. So at this time, I try to make as much of my favorite summer comfort food as I can. This is my all time favorite. I've made it for years, but it's never shown up on the blog. I'm not sure why.

Pasta A La Norma - adapted initially from the Gourmet Cookbook, but i haven't looked at the actual recipe in ages

1 small eggplant (or 2 Japanese ones)
1 28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes (or several fresh ones, peeled. Oh summer)
lots of olive oil
fresh basil
salt
pepper
pasta of your choice
ricotta cheese

1. Heat some olive oil over high heat. Slice up your eggplant and shallow fry it on each side in batches. You want the olive oil to get soaked up into the eggplant and for the eggplant slices to turn golden brown. You'll have to keep adding more oil as you cook because eggplant is like an olive oil sponge.


2. Salt and pepper the eggplant slices and set aside. Don't skimp on the salt.


3. Add the tomatoes to the pan with the olive oil, turn down the heat to medium and add some salt (you could add a little sugar too, to help the tomatoes break down). They have to cook for a while - about 20 minutes is good, so that they really break down into a rich sauce. You can cook the pasta at this time as well. Stir occasionally and don't let the tomatoes stick or burn.


4. Chop up the eggplant into chunks and add to the sauce.


5. Add the basil on top - torn, chopped, whatever.


6. Add the pasta to the sauce and mix to combine. Serve with a dollop of creamy ricotta cheese.


This is one of my all time favorite meals. It's a great vegetarian entree. The eggplant is meaty and delicious and the fresh tomato sauce is an awesome summer treat. The ricotta is a cool change from salty Parmesan (although that is good too). I would eat this every day.

This is my comfort food

So over the past week, someone asked me, "what's up? Aren't you cooking anything?" and I realized that the answer was "No." So after a boring week of lackluster food, I decided to take advantage of my voice lesson being canceled and make one of the recipes that I've been staring at for several days.

Marcella Hazan (you may remember, I read her book a while back), and who is known (at least in my mind) as that Italian lady on PBS with the lame arm, is a genius. I got her essential cookbook for Xmas (thanks, Margie and Hugh!) and there is one recipe in it that people seem to go wild for. Smitten Kitchen and the Amateur Gourmet both love it. I've always been skeptical. For one thing - the only ingredients are tomatoes, an onion and butter. What kind of crazy list is that? For another - it's a tomato sauce that takes over 45 minutes to make. My tomato sauce usually consists of some sauteed onion and garlic, a can of whole peeled tomatoes and salt, maybe some dried oregano, pepper, whatever. It usually takes about 20 minutes.

However - I like tomato sauce. I have extra time today. Why not? So here goes nothing.

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onion

28 ounces whole peeled tomatoes (I used a 35 oz can. Whoops)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste



The neat thing about this recipe? No chopping. Enjoy.

Put the tomatoes, onion, a bit of salt and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion (I know! Crazy! But just do it), add salt to taste.

Marcella says people have been known to just eat this sauce with a spoon and let me tell you, that couldn't be more true. That's pretty much what I've been doing all afternoon.

Here's the sauce (mixed with some whole wheat linguine):


It's messy. It's delicious. It's simple. I am so making this again.

Also, I'm already predicting my dad's comment on this post. Something along the lines of: Why do you add butter to everything? Ruining a perfectly good healthy dish. I only weigh 120 pounds. Blah blah blah.

To which I preemptively reply: Shut it. I cook what I want. I like a little butter now and then. And so do my readers.

If you ask me, I might just do it

This post is for Ellen and Patty. Both of them read my blog and requested specific things from me. Ellen asked for a baked mac and cheese recipe and Patty asked if I would have her over for dinner. Two birds, one stone.

This recipe also comes from the Gourmet Cookbook (which is just so good. I made pancakes from it this morning and they were the first successful pancakes I've ever made. More on that later).

Baked Four-Cheese Farfalle (there is a LOT of cheese in this dish. This is not a dish for the faint-hearted)

1/2 stick butter (4 Tbs) unsalted butter
2 Tbs flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 28 oz can whole tomatoes in juice, drained (reserve the juice for the sauce) and finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 pound farfalle (bow tie pasta - you could use any wide short cut pasta)
1 1/2 cups coarsely grated mozzerella
1/2 cup crumbled gorgonzola (I used blue cheese - I figured it was close enough and it was in my fridge already)
1/2 cup diced Italian Fontina
1 1/3 cups finely grated Romano (like Parmesan but saltier)
1/2 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a large shallow baking dish.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over moderately low heat. Add flour and cook, whisking until it turns light brown (about 3 minutes). If you don't cook it long enough it will taste like flour. That's not good. Add the milk and tomato juice in a slow stream, whisking all the way. Then bring it to a boil and add the tomatoes, salt and peeper. Simmer until thickened (I know it sounds a little complicated, but honestly, it's easy).

Cook pasta in salted water until al dente (or with a bite). Drain.

Stir together pasta, sauce, all the cheese (except 1/3 cup Romano) and parsley. I use the pot I made the sauce in - less dishes. Transfer to the baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining 1/3 cup Romano.

Bake until golden and bubbling, 25 to 30 minutes. Let sit ten minutes.

I did not let it sit. Whoops. It made it not set as well. That's how it goes though. It still tasted good. See, Patty and Mark like it!


I think I should have cooked it longer though. I really need an oven thermometer. I say that every time.