Pasta

Another test recipe from Cook's Illustrated. I used whole wheat penne. There are so many good butternut squash and sage recipes out there, I probably won't make this one again.

• Pasta with Butternut Squash and Sage (Cook's Illustrated Test Recipe)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

My surprise guest for the weekend was my friend Kathy from Georgia. Larry and several friends were in cahoots to bring her into town to celebrate my dreaded 40th birthday (June 13). We had a great weekend, and I decided we needed to make dinner together but I wanted it to be something easy. This pasta is easy to make, but I wasn't overly thrilled with it. Not sure why.

• Smoked Trout Rillettes (Fine Cooking #42, January 2001, p. 44)
• Spaghetti Alla Carbonara (Fine Cooking #92, May 2008, p. 57)
• Butter Lettuce and Radiccio & Lemon Poppyseed Dressing (Fine Cooking #51, July 2002, p. 48)
• Oven-Roasted Beets

Wine:
- Fontodi 2005 Chianti Classico (Chianti, Italy). We thought this was one of the bottles we brought back from Italy last year. It was good, but my notes say we bought it at K&L Wine Merchants.
- Ridge 2002 Buchignani Ranch Carignane (Sonoma County, California). Really good, especially after it opened up a bit.

This dinner choice came out of the desire to not shop anywhere but Trader Joe's. I had uncured turkey bacon in the refrigerator, so I skipped out on the pancetta and used that instead. We really liked this pasta.

• Penne with Pancetta, Spinach & Buttery Crumb Topping (Cooking Light, March 2007)
• Trader Joe's Mixed Greens Salad
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

Wine: Topel 2003 La Mariage Meritage (Mendocino, California). An inexpensive but good red wine blend.

Our New Year's Eve/anniversary dinner tonight was supposed to be delicious hand-made gnocchi. It was okay, but I did some things wrong so it could have been better. The gnocchi was easy to make. I should have boiled it a little longer, and I made the mistake of not using a nonstick pan so it was a little messy. But the shaved truffle, which we got in Italy last month, was delicious. I had picked up jerusalem artichokes from the farmer's market so I made a soup as well. I don't think I like the flavor of jerusalem artichokes. Larry liked it (but not the addition of sprouts on top of the soup). I wasn't crazy about it.

I've got a ton on Meyer lemons from Grandma's house, so I started out my all-lemon, all the time week with a silky lemon pudding that's delicious.

• Roasted Jerusalem Artichoke Bisque with Sunflower Sprouts (Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen, p. 167)
• Pan-Seared Potato Gnocchi (Fine Cooking #90, January 2008, p. 62) with Browned Butter & Black Truffle
• Butter Lettuce and Radiccio with Tomatoes & Lemon Poppyseed Dressing (Fine Cooking #51, July 2002, p. 48)
• Silky Lemon Pudding (Fine Cooking #63, March 2004, p. 65)

Another Cooking Light recipe, pretty good although kind of on the edge for me. It leans towards the semi-homemade genre. I didn't feel like I was really cooking as I poured canned goods and pre-shredded cheese onto the no-bake noodles.

• Tex-Mex Lasagna (Cooking Light, June 2004)

This was a great way to use up a bunch of tomatoes out of the garden. I love fresh tomato sauce, and this was very refreshing.

• Pasta with No-Cook Tomato Sauce (Fine Cooking #87, September 2007, p. 39)
• Butter Lettuce and Radiccio with Chives, Tomatoes & Lemon Poppyseed Dressing (Fine Cooking #51, July 2002, p. 48)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

Wine: Rafanelli 2001 Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley, California). Working our way through the rest of our stock in this vintage, since it's so good right now.

This pasta was good, easy to make and just the right amount of heat from crushed red pepper flakes. And excellent with garlic bread to mop up the extra sauce.

• Rigatoni with Spicy Tomato-Vodka Sauce (Fine Cooking #77, March 2006, p. 82C)
• Butter Lettuce with Poppy Seed & Tarragon-Crème Fraîche Dressing (Fine Cooking #86, July 2007, p. 49)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

Wine: Chumeia 2003 Dante Dusi Vineyard Zinfandel (Paso Robles, California). Good, even better with the pasta.

This pasta took just over a half hour to prepare. I used whole wheat gnocci and it was delicious. I cut back a bit on the oil used, and I think I could have cut back even more.

• Pan-Fried Gnocci with Bacon, Onion & Peas (Fine Cooking #85, May 2007, p. 84a)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

A quick weeknight dinner tonight - I made this pasta using whole wheat linguine. The pasta was pretty good, kind of different.

• Pasta with Caramelized Onion Trio, Arugula, and Mozzarella (Cooking Light, April 2005)
• Hearts of Romaine with Caesar Dressing (The Best Recipe, p. 42)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

I was looking for something fast and happened to see this recipe for pasta with a lemon sauce in and issue of Fine Cooking that was sitting out. A double bonus, because I still have a few meyer lemons left from our harvest over at the neighbor's house.

Larry didn't like the pasta at all. He loves lemon desserts, but doesn't care so much for savory lemon dishes. I liked the pasta enough to finish it, but I won't be making it again. I used Barilla Plus pasta for the first time, and liked it okay. Not as hearty as regular whole wheat pasta (which in many cases is a good thing - whole wheat can overpower delicate sauces).

I had made romanesco broccoli before and loved it, but this time, not so much. Something about the texture - maybe I didn't roast it long enough? Larry liked it, though.

• Angel Hair Pasta with Lemon Cream Sauce (Fine Cooking #77, March 2006, p. 54)
• Roasted Romanesco Broccoli

Wine: David Bruce 2004 Central Coast Pinot Noir (Central Coast, California). Nice, perfect for a casual evening at home.

This recipe came from an article in the latest Fine Cooking called "Pasta from the Pantry". I love articles like this, because it provides inspiration to stray from recipes but gives a good foundation to make a dish with flavors and textures that are complementary. Ironically, I pretty much just stuck to one of the recipes in article. I used capers instead of olives, and used whole-wheat penne. It was a good, easy pasta dish.

• Penne with Tomatoes, Artichokes & Capers (Fine Cooking #81, November 2006, p. 72)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

Wine: David Bruce 1999 Ranchita Canyon Sangiovese (Paso Robles, California). Good, reliable.

Larry is away for the weekend, so it's just me. That means I get to cook things Larry doesn't necessarily like for dinner. I love macaroni and cheese. I decided to try a lighter version from Cooking Light. It's good, but I'm more of a purist when it comes to macaroni and cheese. I didn't quite follow the recipe, so it wasn't as light as it could have been. I used Trader Joe's pre-shredded four-cheese mixture because I was lazy and didn't want to go searching for reduced fat cheddar. Plus... there's something wrong with reduced fat cheese. It's just not right.

• Chipotle Macaroni and Cheese (Cooking Light, July 2004)

I made this pasta salad for a Fourth of July block party. Pasta salad usually leaves something to be desired, but I thought this might be nice because of the arugula. It was nice, but didn't knock my socks off. I used whole wheat pasta, which probably wasn't the best choice.

• Shells with Arugula, Feta & Sun-Dried Tomatoes (Fine Cooking #51, July 2002, p. 43)

Larry requested a pasta with tomato sauce for tonight's dinner since we both have races tomorrow (Muddy Buddy for him, Mermaid Triathlon for me). I was all for it, because honestly, I love a simple dish of pasta, tomatoes, garlic and basil. I used whole wheat spaghetti and we skipped the wine since I was already dehydrated from a week in Denver.

• Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce with Garlic and Basil (Italian Classics, p. 151)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

I think Larry liked this dish better than I did - probably because I'm just so-so on Italian sausage. I used hot italian Turkey sausage to lighten it up. The recipe is from the cookbook "Come for Dinner: Memorable Meals to Share with Friends" by Leslie Revsin. I don't have the cookbook. I got the recipe via "Best of the Best", which was given to me as a gift last year. This is the first time I've cooked from it, although it looks like a good cookbook.

The vanilla pudding was good. I think I probably prefer chocolate, but Larry loves vanilla desserts.

• Orzo "Risotto" with Roasted Tomatoes and Hot Sausage (Best of the Best Vol. 7, p. 98)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)
• Individual Vanilla Puddings (Fine Cooking #71, May 2005, p. 68)

Wine: David Bruce 1999 Ranchita Canyon Sangiovese (Paso Robles, California). Yum.

It was late but I was determined to make dinner tonight. This baked pasta was pretty quick to make. It was good, not super yummy. I used jarred roasted red bell pepper instead of fresh because I was out, and penne instead of cavatappi.

• Cheesy Baked Cavatappi with Onions and Peppers (Cooking Light, June 2005)

Wine: David Bruce 2000 Wirz Vineyard Cabernet Pfeffer (Cienega Valley, California). Interesting wine. Not bad.

I haven't made traditional Spaghetti & Meatballs for a very long time. I have an old recipe that I usually use, but this time I decided to try something new (from Fine Cooking, of course). The recipe had caught my eye when this issue came out because it's from Rao's, a very old family restaurant in East Harlem, New York. The title of the article is "The Best Ever Spaghetti & Meatballs". I hate it when recipes are titled like that, because who's to say it's the best ever? Plus titles like that build up expectations, so that disappointment is that much more acute when the food doesn't live up to the claims. I decided to try it and see if it was the best I'd ever have.

The sauce is just a basic marinara. The meatballs use a mixture of ground beef, pork and veal - Whole Foods was out of ground veal so I had to use their meatloaf mixture. The only time I ever eat veal is in meatloaf and meatballs. The idea of veal grosses me out so I try not to think about it. Everything came together pretty quickly - about two hours start to finish. It wasn't the best ever, but it was pretty good. I've missed garlic bread, that's for sure.

• Spaghetti & Meatballs (Fine Cooking #71, May 2005, p. 51)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

Wine: David Bruce 1999 Ranchita Canyon Sangiovese (Paso Robles, California). This was my first glass of wine since December 4 of last year. Even though I'm still under doctor's orders not to have alcohol, I had a couple of glasses anyway. I can't imagine Spaghetti & Meatballs without a Sangiovese. This is a really nice wine.

Tonight's dinner was ultra-simple, thanks to packaged fresh gnocci, which cooked up in less than two minutes. I crisped up some sage in brown butter and added the gnocci. Yum.

• Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage
• Trader Joe's Baby Spinach Salad

Jay came for dinner tonight. I was craving baked pasta - the ultimate comfort food. This is a quick dish to make, and very yummy.

• Double-Cheese Penne with Sausage & Hot Cherry Peppers (Fine Cooking #56, March 2003, p. 82c)
• Hearts of Romaine with Caesar Dressing (The Best Recipe, p. 42)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

Wine: David Bruce 1999 Ranchita Canyon Sangiovese (Paso Robles, California). Tasty. We need to drink more because we still have six bottles left.

I hadn't found time to make something using the homemade ricotta, so I decided on a quick weeknight pasta. I used whole-wheat pasta. It turned out lovely. And the bread - Larry found a rustic country loaf at Trader Joe's that was absolutely perfect with garlic butter. The fresh ricotta made a lovely creamy pasta sauce.

• Fusilli with Fresh Spinach & Ricotta Cheese (Fine Cooking #36, January 2000, p. 55)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

Larry was craving pasta tonight, and I wanted to make something fast and vegetarian. Larry loved this last time, but it wasn't as spicy this time. He likes this pasta left-over, with Trader Joe's Chipotle Chicken sausage added to it. The salad was exceptionally good tonight.

• Penne Arrabbiata (Food & Wine Fast, p. 34)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)
• Baby Spinach Salad with Bosc Pear, Stilton Cheese, Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar

Wine: Rosenblum 2001 Eagle Point Zinfandel. Yum. Rosenblum makes wonderful Zins. This is one of my favorites.

Fiyaz and Jay were here for dinner. There was fresh asparagus at the Farmer's Market this weekend, and despite my distaste for the stuff, I bought some anyway and used it in the pasta. It didn't flavor the dish too much. I picked mine out and gave it to Larry.

- The pasta dish was good, not fantastic. I made the caramelized onions yesterday, and they were really, really good. I made a huge batch. I used whole wheat penne for the pasta, although the recipe called for gemelli (I was out).
- The salad recipe was one I liked from last week's class at Home Chef. I liked it in class, but tonight I looked at the recipe, and thought that 3/4 cup of sherry vinegar was way too much. I cut it in half and still thought it was too tangy. Won't make this again, although I like the idea of a warm salad.
- Both the pasta and salad called for pancetta. Fiyaz doesn't eat pork, so I used turkey bacon instead. Not quite the same, since the turkey bacon is smoked, but still good.
- The mousse was really, really easy to make and everyone liked it. But it was too rich for me - I could only eat a tiny portion. And after time in the refrigerator, it got kind of dense.

• Penne with Asparagus & Caramelized Onions (Fine Cooking #71, May 2005, p. 62)
• Warm Escarole and Butter Lettuce Salad (Home Chef, Essentials II Series)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)
• Quick Chocolate Mousse (The Best of Fine Cooking, 101 Quick & Delicious Recipes, p. 104, adapted from Fine Cooking #54)

Wine: 2001 Martin Family Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley, California). Pinot probably wasn't the best match for dinner, but I really didn't feel like a white. This is a nice wine, very reasonably priced. The Martins are nice people, too.

I love Deborah Madison, and her Local Flavors cookbook is one of my favorites. This appealed to me because Larry and I both love fennel, and the dish is very simple, mostly just fennel and lemon and pasta. The salad was good, too, but Larry said it's not something he'd want all the time. He's not crazy about endive or stilton.

One note about the recipe: it calls for two tablespoons of butter in the ingredients list, but the instructions only refer to one tablespoon. I used two, but it would have been fine with one, I think.

This menu was somewhat of a tribute to Deborah Madison and Greens Restaurant. Deborah Madison was the founding chef of Greens, and Annie Somerville, who trained under Deborah Madison, is the current chef at Greens.

• Pasta with Golden Fennel (Local Flavors, Deborah Madison, p. 47)
• Winter Greens with Apples, Pecans and Stilton Cheese (Fields of Greens, Annie Somerville, p. 16)

Ever since Amy made baked pasta last week, I've been craving it. She used a recent technique out of Fine Cooking, which I still want to try - but tonight I wanted something that was guaranteed to be quick and that included Italian sausage. This dish didn't disappoint - it was excellent. The flavors were perfectly melded, and it came together quickly. Once Larry got home, all I had to do was put them under the broiler. Larry said it's the best thing I've made in a long time and just what he was looking for.

I couldn't find hot Italian peppers, so I used mild and added some crushed red pepper to the mix. It was just the right amount of spiciness. I used whole wheat penne and Niman Ranch Italian sausage, in honor of Bill Niman, who we met last weekend at The Pasta Shop in Berkeley. Nice man with a company that is making excellent products.

• Double-Cheese Penne with Sausage & Hot Cherry Peppers (Fine Cooking #56, March 2003, p. 82c)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

Larry and I made dinner together tonight. We wanted something quick and easy that wouldn't take a lot of work. This fit the bill perfectly. It's not as creamy as I'd expect, but it was very good. Larry especially liked the addition of peas.

• Pasta Carbonara (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 90)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

• Ziti Baked with Spinach, Tomatoes and Smoked Gouda (Cooking Light, March 2004)

Jay came for dinner tonight. Larry chose this recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks. It was good - Larry really liked it, and Jay and I thought it was just good. Jay didn't really like the texture of the bay scallops. I used frozen peas instead of fresh, because fresh were nowhere to be found. I'm not a huge fan of pasta with seafood, but I liked the orzo, and the sauce was nice.

• Hummus (Fine Cooking #10, August/September 1995, p. 66)
• Lemon Seafood Pasta (Hot Pasta, Hugh Carpenter, p. 38)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)
• Green Salad with Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar

We picked Jay up from the airport tonight and brought him home for dinner. Labor day is a traditional day for grilling, but somehow I got it in my head I was going to do a vegetarian lasagna. Lots of cooking, a hot day and no air conditioning isn't very pleasant, but it wasn't horrible. Both recipes are featured in Fine Cooking's "Dinner with Friends" issue. The lasagna recipe differs slightly from the original in that the original uses 4 oz. mozzarella vs. 10 to 12 oz. in the re-released version.

- Although this lasagna is vegetarian, it is far from low fat. It's got lots of butter and cheese in it. I love fresh mozzarella. I don't like zucchini so I was worried about how much I would like this. It was okay, a bit too zucchini for me. Jay and Larry really liked it. It took some time to put together, but I did it early in the day so I just had to reheat it before dinner. I made a full recipe, and it made quite a bit.
- I used cannellini beans for the bean salad. The article suggests making bruschetta with the beans, but I like just bean salad. I left out the jalapeño, since Jay doesn't do spicy. The beans weren't bad.

Jay was here for dinner tonight. I haven't made this dish for a while, but after talking about it with Amy last week, I've been craving it. It's really easy to make and once it's prepped, it takes under ten minutes to cook.

- I like to add chantarelle mushrooms to this, and matchstick cut carrots (although I didn't tonight). I use Rustichella d'Abruzzo fusili pasta for this dish. I like the long curly pasta. I also like to mix in the goat cheese so it melts, making the dish nice and creamy.
- I did something different with the salad tonight - I used Trader Joe's herb salad mix along with microgreens and tomatoes from our garden. Yum.

• Southwest Pasta with Smoked Chicken (Hot Pasta, Hugh Carpenter, p. 79)
• Green Salad with Tomatoes
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

Wine: David Bruce 2002 Pinot Noir (Dry Creek Valley, California). Young but nice and light - went well with the pasta.

I picked up a copy of a Food & Wine Supplement a couple of weeks ago, called Food & Wine Fast. It's similar to what Fine Cooking is doing with their supplements - gather recipes together in a theme and publish it as a special issue. Most of the recipes have already been published, but I'm a sucker for the special issues, especially when all the recipes are quick to make.

Larry picked out tonight's pasta, and it was very good. Dinner was on the table in less than an hour. Next time, I'll use a bit less pasta. I liked the spiciness from the crushed red pepper, and the smokiness from the bacon. We used whole wheat penne, and thick cut turkey bacon (Willie Bird, of course). This would make a really nice weeknight meal and Larry said he definitely wants this again. We hadn't had garlic bread in a long time. Yum, yum.

• Penne Arrabbiata (Food & Wine Fast, p. 34)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

Wine: David Bruce 1999 Ranchita Canyon Sangiovese (Paso Robles, California). Good.

Since Larry wasn't home for dinner tonight and I got home relatively early, I decided to make something with the two pounds of English peas I shucked last night. I don't usually like peas that much, but when they're fresh, they're so good. I used some basil from my new herb garden for the first time. It's a really quick dish to put together.

• Pasta with Peas and Basil (Fine Cooking #38, May 2000, p. 45)

Larry made dinner tonight. This pasta dish only took about an hour to make, start to finish. It was good - I especially liked the roasted tomatoes. It's been so long since we had garlic bread - mmm good.

• Penne with Chicken, Arugula, Roasted Tomatoes and Feta (Bon Apétit, March 2003)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

This recipe was on the cover of the recent issue of Food & Wine Magazine. It looked good to me - I've been craving spaghetti and meatballs, so I thought this would be a good substitute. It's in the "fast" section of the magazine - it says it takes 30 minutes to prepare, but it took me about an hour, thirty minutes of which was actual cooking time. I liked the end result, though - the mixture of ground beef and ground turkey was nice.

• Pappardelle with Red Wine & Meat Ragú (Food & Wine, February 2004, p. 98)
• Sourdough bread with Sauteed Garlic Butter (Fine Cooking #43, March 2001, p. 49)

Wine: David Bruce 1999 Ranchita Canyon Sangiovese (Paso Robles, California). A really nice everyday red. Well balanced and stands up well to meat pasta.