Spicy Chicken Quesadillas with Avocado Yogurt

Regular readers have probably noticed by now that I'm not posting on my blog much anymore. I've decided to put Cook In / Dine Out in semi-retirement after 5 tasty years. I will still post occasionally, but I won't be as active either here or in social media.

That said, I do plan to post new recipes on occasion if I have something really good, and I think these chicken quesadillas qualify. I love the spicy-sweet flavor of chipotles-in-adobo here. The first time I only used one, but it wasn't spicy enough for me. How much chipotle to use will be a matter of how hot you want it. I'd call this a "medium" heat level.

Spicy Chicken Quesadillas with Avocado Yogurt

Serves 2 as entree or 4 as a starter (easily doubles too)

Quesadilla

2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 lb. boneless-skinless chicken breast (recommend cutlets or tenders)
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Seasoned salt, to taste
1/2 large sweet onion, slivered
2 chipotles-in-adobo, minced with some of the sauce
Juice from 1/2 lime
6 small (fajita size) flour tortillas
4 oz. monterey jack cheese, shredded and divided into 6 equal portions
Avocado yogurt (see below)
Cilantro leaves

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken, season with cumin, oregano, garlic powder and seasoned salt, and sautéed until browned and cooked through, about 10-12 minutes, turning over at the halfway point. Remove the chicken from the pan. After the chicken has rested a couple minutes, chop it into 1/2-inch chunks.

2. Add the onion to the hot pan and sauté, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 8-10 minutes. Stir in the minced chipotles and the chopped chicken. Squeeze the half lime over the mixture to deglaze the pan. Turn off the heat.

3. Heat a 10-inch frying pan over medium heat. Place a tortilla in the pan, then sprinkle evenly with a portion of cheese. Spoon about 3/4 cup of chicken mixture on top of the cheese, spreading it in an even layer, then sprinkle another portion of cheese evenly on top before topping with a second tortilla. Cook for 90 seconds until the bottom tortilla is lightly browned, flip (recommend using a wide spatula) and cook for another minute. Transfer to a cutting board and cut into fourths. Repeat two more times with the remaining ingredients to make 3 whole quesadillas (or 12 fourths when cut). Garnish with avocado-yogurt and cilantro leaves.

Avocado Yogurt

1 ripe hass avocado, peeled and pit discarded, flesh cut into fourths
1/2 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
Juice from 1/2 lime

In a tall container, combine the avocado, yogurt and lime juice. Blend until smooth with an immersion blender (alternatively, combine the ingredients in a food processor or standard blender and pulse until smooth).

Roasted Tomato and Sausage Baked Ziti

Say what you want about Carmela Soprano, but the woman can cook. Re-watching The Sopranos recently gave me a major hankering for some of her baked ziti, a dish she trotted out with some frequency for family dinners and guests (she even dumped an entire batch into the garbage once, the horror!).

This is the sort of dish which you can make lots of different ways, although it's never going to be a truly "quick" meal. About the shortest way to do it is with a jarred meat-and-tomato sauce, although you're still looking at an hour-long dish, since you have to first boil the noodles before assembling and baking the dish (plus, you're using jarred sauce, which is frankly not very good compared to what you could whip up yourself is about the same amount of time). The longest route involves making Italian "Sunday gravy," a meat, vegetable and tomato sauce that bubbles on your stove all afternoon. Obviously, I'd rather have something like that than something from the jar, but cooking all afternoon can be tiring.

My version finds what I think is a happy medium. My sauce comes together quickly but is made with all fresh ingredients, including fresh tomatoes that roasted the previous afternoon. I used a mixture of hot and mild Italian sausage, but you could certainly use only one or the other, depending on your heat preference. A lot of recipes add egg to the ricotta, presumably to smooth it out so you can spread it more easily. I find gently heating it in the microwave to do the trick just fine.

I served this with a simple side salad of lettuce dressed with a mustard vinaigrette and a 2008 Plumpjack syrah, a nice choice, since it's slight sweetness, spicy flavor and mild tannins complemented the pasta perfectly.

Roasted Tomato and Sausage Baked Ziti

Makes 8 servings

Note: to soften ricotta that's just out of the refrigerator, transfer to a microwave-safe container and microwave on high for 10 seconds, stir and repeat until the ricotta is easily spreadable.

1 lb. dried ziti noodles (may use other tube-shaped noodles, such as penne)
Salt, to taste.
3/4 lb. hot or mild Italian sausage, removed from casings
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
1 recipe of simple roasted tomatoes (see recipe below)
1/2 cup dry white wine (may use dry vermouth if you have some on hand you're trying to use up)
Olive oil spray or additional olive oil
1 cup ricotta cheese, softened (see note above)
8 oz. part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded (I recommend shredding it yourself)
1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add noodles and cook according to package directions until al dente. Drain and set aside.

3. Heat a large nonstick sauté pan over medium heat. Add sausage and cook, breaking up as the sausage cooks through. Remove cooked sausage from pan and transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate. Remove sausage drippings from pan. Transfer the sausage to a cutting board and chop to an even pebble-sized consistency.

4. Add olive oil and butter to the pan. When the butter is melted, add the onion and garlic. Season with salt, pepper, thyme and oregano. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions have softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in the cooked sausage, roasted tomatoes, white wine and 1 cup of water. Increase heat to bring mixture to a bubble, then reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in the cooked ziti noodles.

5. Spray a 9 X 13 baking dish with olive oil (or brush with olive oil). Transfer half of the noodles-and-sauce mixture to the baking dish and smooth with a spatula. Spread the ricotta on top, then spread half of the shredded mozzarella over the ricotta. Add the remaining noodles-and-sauce on top in an even layer, then spread the remaining mozzarella on top of that. Sprinkle with the grated parmigano-reggiano cheese.

6. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake in the hot oven covered for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes until the mixture is bubbling and the cheese has melted. Remove from oven, allow to cool about 5 minutes and serve.

Simple Roasted Tomatoes

3 lb. fresh tomatoes, stem end removed, cut into 1 to 2 inch pieces
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, plus olive oil spray
Kosher salt, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Add the tomatoes to a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and toss to combine. Spray a 9 X 13 baking dish with olive oil. Spread the tomatoes in an even layer in the baking dish.

3. Bake the tomatoes until they have reduced significantly in size, look shrived and are starting to brown around the edges, about 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Stir every hour for the first couple hours, then more frequently, up to every 10 to 15 minutes when around the time you hit the 3-hour mark and most of the liquid has evaporated. This is to prevent the tomatoes from burning.

4. When done, the tomatoes should be shrived, lightly browned in places with little moisture remaining in the pan. Remove from the oven, allow to cool, then transfer to a container to store in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use.

Kale, Smoked Gouda and Pecan Gratin

As I mentioned on Friday, it's easy to overlook vegetable sides when putting together a Thanksgiving meal that already consists of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce. But they are a welcome complement to those protein- and carb-rich dishes. That's not to suggest that every vegetable side has to be virtuously "healthy." Enter the gratin: a hot, bubbly, creamy irresistibly cheesy vegetable side. Gratins are easy and popular. They are often topped with cheese or bread crumbs, although for this one, I used a topping of finely chopped pecans, which go nicely with the smoky gouda cheese melted into the sauce.

Kale, Smoked Gouda and Pecan Gratin

12 oz. lacinato kale
Salt, to taste
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cold
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 cup whole milk
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
Dash of ground nutmeg
3/4 cup shredded smoked gouda cheese
3/4 cup pecan halves

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.

2. Cut the stems from the kale leaves. Chop the leaves into 2-inch wide pieces. Dice the stems.

3. Bring a large saucepan with two quarts of salted water to boil. Cook the kale leaves in the boiling water until tender, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from water and set aside to cool. Squeeze leaves to remove excess moisture and set aside in a large bowl.

4. Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the diced kale stems, onion, and garlic, season with salt and pepper and sauté until softened, about 8-10 minutes. Transfer onion mixture to the bowl with the kale leaves.

5. Return the sauté pan to medium heat. Add 1 tbsp. butter and, when melted, add the flour and whisk to combine. Cook, whisking constantly, until lightly browned, about a minute or two. Add the milk, mustard and nutmeg, whisk to combine and cook until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Reduce heat to medium-low and add the shredded cheese. Whisk until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth.

6. Pour cheese sauce over cooked vegetables in the large bowl and stir to combine. Transfer to a buttered 9 x 9 baking dish.

7. Pulse pecans in a food processor until ground into crumbs. Spread in an even layer on top of the kale mixture. Cut the remaining tbsp. of butter into small cubes and scatter across the top of the pecan topping.

8. Bake the gratin until the mixture bubbles, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool a bit before serving warm.

Related

8-2-Eat: Thanksgiving Vegetable Sides

Thanksgiving Central

Sausage, Vegetable and Gruyere Frittata

If your mom is like mine, you should listen to her more often, as she probably has good ideas. Like the recipe for this frittata, the Italian answer to the French omelet. Unlike an omelet, which is cooked quickly with the fillings added last, frittatas are cooked slowly with the eggs added to the already cooked fillings and then broiled to set the eggs.

A few weeks ago, my mom emailed me about a frittata recipe she made. I thought it sounded really good, but I didn't make it right away. Then a couple weeks later she made it again and I thought, yes, I should really make this.

So this time I did. I don't know where she got the recipe, but I made some adjustments, so I feel comfortable calling it my own (with credit to Mom, of course). This is a simple dish that comes together fairly quickly. It's also quite flexible. You could easily omit the sausage to make it vegetarian, substitute a different meat (bacon, ham, chicken, turkey) and use a different combination of vegetables or a different cheese. I went with mild Italian chicken sausage, onion, zucchini, red pepper and rainbow chard with gruyere cheese, but you could use just about any green, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower. Just be mindful of the total quantity. A 12-inch frying pan is ideal for this, and it should be about half-full of cooked ingredients before you add the egg and cheese mixture.

Sausage, Vegetable and Gruyere Frittata

2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 to 3/4 lb. mild Italian chicken sausage, casings removed
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 green zucchini, diced
1 punch chard (may use rainbow or Swiss), leaves removed from stems and cut into 2-inch pieces (stems discarded)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
8 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup shredded gruyere cheese

1. Preheat oven broiler with rack 4 inches below the broiler.

2. Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a 12-inch nonstick oven-safe frying pan over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up with a spoon, until cooked through. Remove sausage from pan. Add another tbsp. olive oil to the pan and increase heat to medium-high. Add the onion, bell pepper and zucchini and cook until the vegetables are lightly browned, about 5-6 minutes. Stir in the chard, reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally until the chard wilts, about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Return the sausage to the pan and spread the ingredients evenly on the bottom of the pan. Whisk together the eggs and half the cheese in a large bowl. Pour the eggs and cheese over the vegetable-sausage mixture. Continue to cook on the stove to set the bottom of the eggs, about 3 minutes.

4. Transfer pan to the oven and broil until the top is firm, about 3 minutes. Spread the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese on top and broil an additional minute to melt and brown the cheese (watch to make sure it doesn't burn). Remove from oven and cut into wedges for serving.

Cooking with Ottolenghi

Here's an unfortunate but much too common scenario: I can't think of what to make for dinner. There's no particular "experiment" I want to do, no particular new dish or ingredient I want to try out. I'm in a rut.

So I go online and search for something, inevitably finding some delicious idea or recipe along the way. But I did it once again: I neglected my cookbooks.

In the Internet age, it's so easy to overlook this great resource. Every once in awhile, I find I need to remind myself to crack a few open, look at the pictures, read the recipes. I'm rarely disappointed in what I find.

It was a recent Saturday morning that I cracked open Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, the 2013 publication by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, the London-based chefs and restauranteurs that have together authored this cookbook and its best-selling predecessor, Jerusalem.

It's a wonderful cookbook wish dishes of varying complexity, beautiful photographs and loads of flavor. I settled on two dishes that I figured I could execute for dinner over a couple of hours: 1) fennel, cherry tomato, and crumble gratin and 2) beef and lamb meatballs baked in tahini.

Both of these recipes were delicious, but we were really blown away by the gratin. Although I recreated the meatballs faithful to Ottolenghi and Tamimi's recipe, I added an extra player to the gratin: fresh sweet corn. It was a welcome player indeed! In fact, I think this recipe could be switched up to accommodate different vegetable combinations, depending on the season. I bet it would be delicious with butternut squash and onion in the winter, for example.

Beef and Lamb Meatballs Baked in Tahini
Adapted from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

Tahini sauce:
2/3 cup tahini
2/3 cup water
4 1/2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced
Pinch of salt

Meatballs:
1 1/4 oz. white bread, crust removed
10-12 oz. ground beef
10-12 oz. ground lamb
3 garlic cloves, minced
2/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 tsp. salt (reduced from the original 1 tsp. in the recipe)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 egg, slightly beaten

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Grated lemon zest from 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. Make the tahini sauce: Combine tahini, water, vinegar, garlic and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. The mixture should thicken slightly. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 400 F.

3. Soak the bread in water, then squeeze out the water and crumble the bread (it will be mushy) into a large bowl. Add the beef, lamb, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper, allspice, cinnamon and egg. Using your hands, mix the ingredients until completely combined. Shape the mixture into golf-ball-size meatballs.

4. Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add half the meatballs and cook for about 2-3 minutes, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides. Remove meatballs from pan and place on a paper-towel-lined plate. Repeat with the remaining meatballs.

5. Transfer browned meatballs to a 9 X 13 baking dish, arranged in a single layer. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, pour the tahini sauce over and around the meatballs and return to the oven to bake for another 10-12 minutes until the meatballs are cooked through (I checked them with a thermometer to be sure they were 160 F degrees). Garnish with the lemon zest and additional parsley and serve.

Fennel, Corn and Cherry Tomato Gratin
Adapted from Fennel, Cherry Tomato and Crumble Gratin from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

Crumble:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3 1/2 oz. grated parmigiano-regginao cheese

Gratin:
2 1/4 lb. (about 1 large or 2 small) fennel bulbs, cut into pieces about of 1/2 to 1 inch
Kernels from 1 ear of corn (about 1 cup)
3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1/2 tbsp. sea salt (reduced from the recipe's 1 tbsp.)
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 cup heavy cream
10 1/2 oz. (about 1 1/2 cups) cherry tomatoes (I used sungold tomatoes)
1 tsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.

2. Make the crumble: combine the flour, sugar and butter in a medium bowl and mix together with your hands until the mixture has a uniform crumb texture (don't overmix or it will become dough-like). Stir in the grated parmesan cheese.

3. Assemble the gratin: in a large bowl, combine the fennel, corn, olive oil, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Transfer mixture to a 9 X 13 baking dish. Pour the cream evenly over the mixture, then spread the crumble evenly over the top. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes.

4. Remove the dish from the oven and remove the aluminum foil. Scatter the cherry tomatoes over the top of the gratin. Return the dish to the oven and bake another 15 minutes until the fennel is soft, the top of the gratin is lightly golden and the tomatoes have shriveled a bit.

Linda Gray's Mexican Meat Pie

I've made dishes from celebrity chefs before, but this is a first from a celebrity actor.

The recipe comes from actress Linda Gray, most famous for portraying Sue Ellen Ewing in the CBS television drama "Dallas" and its recent TNT revival. Gray's new memoir, The Road to Happiness Is Always Under Construction, was released today. My husband Chris, a.k.a. Dallas Decoder, has a review of the book on his site, as well as an interview with Linda, while I focus on what she has to share about food and cooking.

The time I met Linda was, appropriately, over a meal. This was about a year and a half ago, as my husband and I got to enjoy lunch in Dallas on a beautiful spring day with Linda and Dallas's costume designer, Rachel Sage Kunin.

Of course the conversation gravitated toward food at some point, and it was clear that Linda enjoys good food and cooking just like I do. So I was thrilled to hear that her new memoir includes recipes and knew I wanted to share one on my blog. When Chris told Linda this recently, she was all for it, encouraging me to embellish the recipes as I saw fit.

Although not the focus of the book, food has a constant presence through The Road to Happiness. Early on, she recounts how she helped her then-husband overcome chronic acid reflux by changing his diet to incorporate more fresh vegetables. She became obsessed with cooking and nutrition. Later in the book, she describes making pasta with garlic and spinach picked from her garden to serve Elizabeth Taylor for lunch--with only a 45-minute warning that the legendary actress would be coming over. No pressure! On a more serious note, she also discusses her work as an advocate to address senior hunger.

Linda sprinkles recipes throughout the book and cites food writer Michael Pollan's famous adage to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants" as one of her favorite food quotes (it's a personal favorite of mine as well). She still likes to cook: toward the end of the book is a recipe for a lasagna noodle and vegetable crock pot meal that she makes for herself "all the time."

The story around her Mexican Meat Pie will feel familiar to working parents. It was early 1978, and Linda was going to be away from home for a couple months to film what became the first of 14 seasons of the original Dallas. Wanting to ensure her 11- and 13-year-old children were well-fed while she was gone, she stockpiled and froze a number of dishes, including this Mexican Meat Pie. It's a delicious and simple dish that comes together in just over an hour.

With Linda's blessing, I made some adjustments from her original recipe. I used ground turkey instead of ground beef and upped the amount of vegetables, adding bell pepper, jalapeño, garlic and quite a bit more onion. While Linda's recipe called for taco seasoning, I made my own spice blend with cumin, coriander, chipotle chili powder, oregano, salt and just a hint of brown sugar. This makes for quite a bit more filling than her original recipe, so I'd recommend baking this in a 9 X 13 dish (and using 12 tortillas) instead of the 9-inch pie plate (and 8 tortillas) her recipe calls for.

Linda Gray's Mexican Meat Pie
Adapted from Mexican Meat Pie by Linda Gary from The Road to Happiness Is Always Under Construction

1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 lb. ground turkey (dark meat)
1 yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeño, minced with seeds removed
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. chipotle chili powder
1 tbsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
Kernels from 1 ear of corn, about 1 cup
15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2/3 cup corn meal
1 cup water
Olive oil spray
8 corn tortillas (or 12 if using a 9 x 13 baking dish)
3-4 cups shredded Monterey jack cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add turkey and cook, breaking up with a spoon until browned. Remove from pan.

3. Add onion, bell pepper, jalapeño and garlic to pan and cook until softened, about 8 minutes. Stir in the cumin, coriander, chili powder, oregano, brown sugar and salt. Add the cooked turkey, corn, black beans, crushed tomatoes, corn meal and water and stir to combine. Turn off the heat.

4. Spray the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan (or 9 x 13 baking dish) with olive oil. Place four of the tortillas in the bottom of the pie pan (or, alternatively, six tortillas in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish). Spread the tortillas evenly to cover the bottom of the baking dish, allowing the edges of the tortillas to fold up the sides. Spread meat mixture evenly over tortillas until the mixture comes halfway up the pan. Sprinkle the top with half of the shredded cheese, then add another layer of tortillas, meat mixture and then cheese (if using a 9-inch pie pan, there will be leftover meat mixture).

5. Bake in the oven until the cheese has melted and the mixture is heated through, about 35 minutes. Allow to cool 5 minutes. If using a round pan, cut into wedges; if using a square pan, cut into squares. Serve immediately.

Snap Pea and Bacon Salad with Ricotta and Roasted Chickpeas

This colorful spring salad is all about contrast, both in flavor and texture. It mingles smoky chewy bacon with crisp raw sugar snap peas, earthy roasted chickpeas and creamy fresh ricotta. A drizzle of reduced balsamic vinegar adds a touch of sweetness.

Snap Pea and Bacon Salad with Ricotta and Roasted Chickpeas

Makes 2 salads

15 oz. can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp. plus 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Seasoned salt, to taste (about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp.)
Smoked paprika, to taste (about 1/4 tsp.)
4 oz. thick-cut hickory-smoked bacon, cut into 1/2-inch wide pieces
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
8 oz. sugar snap peas, cut into halves or thirds
3 radishes, thinly sliced
10-12 spearmint leaves, torn into pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 oz. fresh ricotta cheese (if time permits, use homemade)

1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Combine chickpeas, 1 tbsp. olive oil, seasoned salt and smoked paprika in a medium bowl and toss to combine. Spread chickpeas in an even layer on a baking sheet and roast until browned and a bit crispy, about 15-20 minutes, stirring halfway through. Set aside to cool.

2. Heat a medium frying pan over medium heat. Cook the bacon until cooked through (lightly browned and crisp). Transfer bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate and set aside.

3. Heat a small frying pan over medium heat. Add the balsamic vinegar and cook until reduced by half.

4. In a large bowl, combine sugar snap peas, radishes and mint. Whisk together remaining 2 tbsp. olive oil with salt and pepper and pour over salad ingredients. Toss to combine.

5. Divide the ricotta and spread it on the bottom of two plates. Divide the dressed ingredients and place on top of the ricotta. Top each plate with half of the roasted chickpeas, half the cooked bacon and a drizzle of half the reduced balsamic vinegar.

Pasta with Simple Sausage-Tomato Sauce

I make pasta a lot, and during any time except July-September, if it contains tomatoes they are canned.

The grocery store is acutely aware of the association between pasta and canned tomatoes. The dried pasta is located on the same aisle as the whole, diced, crushed, pureed and pasted (if that's a word) tomatoes. Your De Cicco and San Marzano and just a mere feet away, waiting for you to combine them into something wonderful.

There's another specter on this aisle though: the jarred pasta sauce. And it's a demon. I haven't bought this stuff for years, but checked up on them recently. I see they now sell them with cheese already mixed in--can't imagine that does great things for the cheese. Several also bill themselves as being "with meat," but don't specify which meat. According to the ingredients, it's beef, which is only slightly more descriptive--I'm going to assume we're talking ground beef. One such sauce also contains soybean oil (more of it than beef) and "natural flavor" whatever that is (based on what I've read, it could be just about anything cooked up in a lab somewhere). And many of them have added sugar, which good tomatoes just don't need.

If I'm sounding rather snooty about jarred pasta sauce, I don't apologize for it, and here's why: you can make something far better yourself using canned tomatoes. It's not hard to whip up a simple sauce. And you can do it in the time it takes to boil the noodles. After putting a pot of water on the stove to boil at 6:45 (which takes about 15 minutes), this dish was ready at 7:10. And it was good, really good. So next time you're in the mood for simple pasta with tomato sauce, pick up a few extra ingredients and skip the jarred stuff. You'll be much happier.

A word about grana padano, the cheese I used. I first learned about it last summer while reading Molly Wizenberg's memoir Delancey. It's one of the cheeses she said they use on their pizzas. I've been searching for it ever since. Although I've read that grana padano is more prevalent than parmigiano-reggiano, in my experience, it's harder to find in the United States. Our Whole Foods doesn't have it, and I once helped an employee of a specialty deli search through her cheese case looking for the grana padano they were supposed to have (we couldn't find it). Then one recent weekend at Giant, I came across a display of it at the end-cap of the specialty cheese case. Yes, sometimes the conventional grocery store does have things you can't find elsewhere.

This is a hard Italian cheese similar to parmigiano-reggiano, both of which are types of "grana" cheese (there is a third primary type, grana trentino, that I've ye to try). I tried slices of both cheeses side-by-side. Their flavor is very similar. Unless you're a real cheese expert, if someone fed you a spoonful of grana padano, you would probably say it was parmesan. The grana padano is a slightly milder flavor--you don't get quite that nutty taste of parmigiano-reggiano, and the texture is also a bit softer--there isn't any of that slight crunch you get with parmigiano. If grana padano does become easier to find, I might buy it more often, especially if it is less expensive.

Pasta with Simple Sausage-Tomato Sauce

1 lb. dried tube pasta (I used penne lisce, the kind of penne without ribbing)
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 lb. mild Italian chicken sausage, removed from casings
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Pinch of red chili pepper flakes
28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. dried thyme
Generous dash of ground nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Grated grana padano or parmigiano-reggiano cheese, served at table

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta according to package directions for al dente. Drain and set aside.

2. In a large pot, such as a Dutch oven, heat 1 tbsp. olive oil over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up with a spoon, until no longer pink and lightly browned in places. Remove from the pan, transfer to a cutting board and chop fine.

3. Add the other tbsp. olive oil to the pot. Add the garlic and red chili pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the crushed tomatoes and thin with about 1/2 cup of water. Season with oregano, thyme, nutmeg, salt and pepper. When the mixture begins to sputter, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer a few minutes (if you're doing this while pasta is cooking, give it about 10 minutes). Turn off the heat and stir in the pasta to coat it with the sauce. Serve the pasta in shallow bowls with the grated cheese at the table.

Smoky Bacon Macaroni & Cheese

Let's just pause for a minute and think about the amazing goodness that warm melted cheese and thick smoky bacon can bring to a multitude of recipes. Mmm....

When I brought the two together for this smoky bacon mac & cheese, it was pretty much perfect. I love everything about this recipe. The combination of sharp cheddar and aged gruyere with a little parmigiano-reggiano is just the right mixture of cheeses. The bacon, which comes from Benton's Smoky Country Hams, is so smoky it will make you think someone built a campfire in your kitchen.

When making the béchamel, I've recently learned that it works better to add the milk in small increments rather than all at once. I've noticed that you don't end up with that "flour film" in the pan that I've experienced before. Otherwise, I think I can just let the pictures do the talking on this one (scroll all the way down for the recipe).

Smoky Bacon Macaroni & Cheese

8 oz. thick hickory-smoked bacon, cut into lardons (1/4- to 1/2-inch wide strips)--I strongly recommend using Benton's hickory smoked country bacon
Salt
1 lb. dried penne rigate pasta
1 tbsp. plus 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 cups whole milk
Dash of grated nutmeg
Freshly ground white pepper, to taste
8 oz. shredded sharp cheddar cheese
8 oz. shredded aged gruyere cheese
1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano (parmesan) cheese

1. Cook bacon in a medium frying pan over medium heat until browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on a paper-towel-lined plate. Discard the bacon grease or save for another use.

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta according to packaged directions for al dente. Drain and set aside in the pot.

3. Melt 1 tbsp. butter in a small nonstick frying pan over medium-low heat. Add panko and stir to coat evenly with butter. Cook for about 2 minutes. Don't brown the breadcrumbs. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. Melt 2 tbsp. butter in a medium saucepan (I recommend using a shallow saucepan) over medium heat. Add flour and whisk to combine. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes (do not brown), stirring frequently with the whisk to form a roux. Add 1/4 cup of milk and immediately whisk into the roux until smooth. Add another 1/4 cup milk and repeat. Keep adding the milk in 1/4 cup increments, whisking each time until the mixture is smooth, until all the milk is added. Increase the to medium heat to bring the mixture to a bubble, then reduce heat to medium low. Season with nutmeg and white pepper. This is white sauce, sometimes called béchamel.

5. Add the cheese by handfuls to the béchamel, whisking in each handful until smooth until all the cheese has been incorporated. Turn off the heat.

6. Preheat the oven broiler with the rack about 6 inches from the broiler.

7. Add the cooked bacon, grated parmigiano-reggiano and cheese sauce to the pot with the cooked pasta. Stir to combine. Transfer the mixture to a 9 X 13 baking dish. Smooth the top with a spatula. Sprinkle the buttered panko evenly over the top. Place the baking dish under the broiler and broil until the bread crumbs are lightly browned, about 2-3 minutes (watch carefully, do not do this unattended as it can burn very fast). Remove from oven and serve immediately in shallow bowls.

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Mac & Cheese: Lessons on Cheese Substitutions

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Rotini with Blue Cheese, Squash and Sage

Penne with Sausage, Goat Cheese, Sage and Butternut Squash

Butternut squash is wonderful roasted, such as in the fall farro bowl I shared earlier this week. However, roasting can take awhile, especially if you have a large electric oven to preheat first. For something faster, butternut squash is also quite tasty when pan-sauteed.

This pasta dish is full of many of my favorite fall flavors, especially the classic trio of butternut squash, sage and goat cheese. Along with the sausage, it makes a tasty, seasonal pasta dish, similar in flavor to my butternut squash, goat cheese and sausage lasagna, although far faster and easier to prepare.

Because the pasta is going to be cooked twice--first in the boiling water and then stirred into the sauce--be sure to not cook it past the al dente point where it is quite chewy. In fact, you might want to stop a notch shy of al dente if you like a firmer pasta (like I generally do).

Penne with Sausage, Goat Cheese, Sage and Butternut Squash

1 lb. penne rigate pasta
Salt
1/2 lb. mild Italian chicken sausage (uncooked)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, diced
1 lb. of butternut squash cut into 1/2-inch cubes (squash should have been previously peeled and seeded)
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp. fresh sage, chopped
Pinch of ground nutmeg
4 oz. chèvre goat cheese, cut into small chunks
Grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

1. Heat a large pot of salted water over high heat until boiling. Add pasta and cook according to package directions for al dente (cooked through but still chewy). Reserve 1 cup of pasta cooking water. Drain pasta and set aside.

2. Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Remove sausage from casings and add to pan. Cook, breaking up with a spoon, until cooked through and lightly browned. Remove sausage from pan and transfer to a cutting board. Chop until finely minced.

3. Increase the heat under the sauté pan to medium-high. Add the olive oil, butter and onion. Cook until the onion softens, then add the butternut squash and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions and squash are soft and lightly browned in places, about 12-15 minutes. Stir in the sage and nutmeg, then add the cooked pasta and sausage. Cook, about 1-2 minutes until fragrant and the sausage in reheated. Remove from the heat. Add the reserved pasta cooking water and chunks of goat cheese and stir to combine (the residual heat will melt the cheese). Serve in shallow bowls with topped grated parmesan.

Bacon, Brussels Sprouts and Caramelized Onion Frittata

Frittatas are really easy to make. I'm surprised I don't do it more often. It goes something like this: assemble a few key ingredients, like a vegetable or two, a meat and a cheese, then pour egg over them, let set on the bottom, then broil to set on top. And you're done.

Because the actual making of the frittata is so simple, I don't mind putting a little extra effort into getting the ingredients just right. In this case, I roasted Brussels sprouts until they were wonderfully brown, pan-crispsed some really smoky thick bacon slices and caramelized a sweet onion. I even grated a little gruyere, one of my favorite cheeses.

Bacon, Brussels Sprouts and Caramelized Onion Frittata

12 oz. Brussels sprouts, ends cut off and sprouts halved (with cuts made through the stem ends so they hold together)
2 tbsp. olive oil
Salt, to taste
8 oz. thick hickory-smoked bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 sweet onion, cut into thin pieces about 1-inch long and 1/4-inch wide
1 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
7 large eggs
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup shredded gruyere cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Put cut sprouts in a large bowl, drizzle with olive oil and season with a pinch of salt, then spread on a baking sheet, flipping any sprouts over so the cut-side is down. Roast for 35 minutes until golden brown in places. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. This step may be done in advance with the roasted sprouts stored in the fridge.

2. Heat a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until browned and crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside on a paper-towel-lined plate.

3. Heat a large (12-inch) frying pan over medium heat. Add butter. When melted, add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until golden brown, about 25-30 minutes (add water as necessary to prevent onions from browning too quickly). Stir in the roasted sprouts, bacon and thyme. Use a spatula to spread the ingredients in an even layer in the pan.

4. Preheat oven broiler.

5. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl, seasoned with salt and pepper. Pour eggs evenly around ingredients in the frying pan. Using a spatula, gently lift the ingredients around the edges and in the middle as the egg sets to let the runny eggs run down into the pan (similar to what you'd do with a omelet). When the egg is fairly set on the bottom, sprinkle the gruyere cheese on top, then put the pan in the oven under the broiler. Broil for a few minutes until the cheese is melted and lightly browned and the egg is set on top. Remove from oven, allow to cool slightly, then cut into wedges and serve.