Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta and Bean) Soup

Still in my "use up" mode, I knocked out a few more things from my pantry with this wonderful Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta and Bean) Soup.

A lot of people probably know Pasta e Fagioli from the Olive Garden, where it is one of their most popular soups. Although I'm generally not much of an Olive Garden fan, I have had this soup and it is pretty satisfying.

Cooking the ribs with the bones still in adds flavor to the soup.

For this version, I turned to the Italian cooking master Marcella Hazan, whose lasagna I so enjoyed earlier this year. She describes the cranberry bean (also known as the borlotti bean) as being the traditional bean for this soup, which she says has a flavor like chestnuts when fresh. It's clear she prefers fresh but says that dried work well too and that "if necessary, one may even use the canned." I may be turning a little red in admitting this, but the cans were what I used. If you can't find cranberry beans, kidney beans should work well here too.

Be careful to reserve the tomato puree when removing the tomatoes from the can to chop them. I dumped the whole can into a bowl and fished out the tomatoes, returning them chopped to the bowl with their puree.

The recipe below adjusts the proportions from Hazan's original recipe to make a greater volume of soup by upping the volume of vegetables substantially and doubling the amount of pasta. Be warned that I didn't double the liquid, so this makes a rather thick soup. In fact, given the puree from the tomatoes and the exuded starch from the pasta, it's downright stew-like (especially when eaten the next day as leftovers). That was perfectly fine with me, but if you want a "brothier" soup, I suggest adding more liquid--perhaps another couple cups of beef broth or water.

The noodles I used, brichetti, look like little stubs of thick spaghetti. Any kind of small stubby pasta would work well here, such as ditalini (short tubes) or conchigliette (little shells).

Pasta e Fagioli (Pasta and Bean) Soup
Adapted from a recipe from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella Hazan

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
Salt, to taste
1 carrot, peeled and diced
2 celery ribs, diced
3 pork spareribs, separated, fat cut off
28 oz. can of imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice (which is really more like a puree if you buy San Marzano tomatoes)
2 16-oz. cans of cranberry beans, drained and rinsed (may substitute other beans, such as kidney beans)
4 cups low-sodium beef broth
1 cup water
1 lb. brichetti pasta
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
3-4 tbsp. chopped fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in an enamel Dutch oven or similar large soup pot. Add the onion, season to taste with salt and sauté until soft and golden, about 8 minutes.

2. Add the carrots and celery, stir to combine with the onion, then add the pork ribs. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add the tomatoes and their juice and reduce heat to simmer, stirring frequently, for about 20 minutes.

4. Add the beans, stir to combine and cook for 5 minutes. Add the broth, cover the pot and bring to a gentle boil. Add the pasta and cook, at a gentle boil, until the pasta is almost al dente (let the residual heat finish cooking the pasta). Remove soup from the heat.

5. Remove the pork ribs and cut the meat from the bones (then discard the bones). Shred or chop the meat and return it to the pot. Season soup to taste with freshly ground black pepper. Stir in the parmesan cheese and butter. Serve in bowls topped with a sprinkle of fresh parsley.

Salmon with Yogurt-Dill Sauce

Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, winner of this year's James Beard Award for best food blog, is a site I find myself turning to often. What sets Hank Shaw's blog apart from the pack, besides his great writing, is how connected his cooking is to foraging. He writes mostly about food he has hunted/caught/grown/gathered himself, which is pretty remarkable.

It's also quite different from my current experience. As an apartment-dwelling urbanite, I don't have the opportunity to obtain my food so directly, at least not on a consistent basis. Like many, I rely on the grocery store and farmers market to supply my raw materials.

But as a child, I grew up a family that, although primarily sustained by the grocery store, supplemented that with a fair amount of food from our own efforts. My grandmother's rather large (by city standards) vegetable garden supplied us with freshly grown vegetables, legumes and berries. She also raised chickens, and when I stayed with her, it was my job to collect the eggs. My mother also grew (and still does) vegetables and herbs in her garden. Last year she turned out some pretty peppery arugula and her tomatoes are always amazing.

And my father went after the game, mostly elk in the winter and fish in the summer. Being close to the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, we had access to all sorts of sea life, including fresh dungeness crab, sturgeon and, naturally, salmon.

Shaw's recipes for things like wild bullfrogs and wild bear are unlikely to ever be made in my kitchen; however, his fish recipes are more akin to something I have the tools and available ingredients to make. I've featured several in The Feed, including Salmon with Avocado Salsa and Steelhead with Sorrel Sauce and Salsify.

His recent recipe for butter-poached salmon with dill-horseradish cream inspired me to make something similar. As lusciously wonderful as butter-poached salmon sounds, I decided to a lighter route by just broiling my salmon, as I typically do, with a little bit of butter on top. I also used Greek yogurt, instead of sour cream for the sauce, which I tried before with tarragon and lemon and it worked great with the dill and horseradish in this recipe.

I mixed the butter with olive oil, which lowers its smoke point to prevent it from burning while the salmon cooks (it will still brown a bit, but browned butter is great). By spreading the butter/oil/garlic mixture on top of the fish with the flesh-side up, it melts into the fish as it starts to cook then pools on the bottom. Then, once it's time to flip the salmon, the fleshy side continues to cook in the garlicky buttery mixture.

Salmon with Yogurt-Dill Sauce
Inspired by Poached Salmon with Dill-Horseradish Cream by Hank Shaw of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook

Makes 2 portions (with lots of leftover sauce)

1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened but not melted
2 tsp. finely minced garlic
Salt, to taste
3/4 lb. salmon fillets, skin on
3/4 cup (6 oz.) Greek yogurt
2 tsp. prepared horseradish sauce
1-2 tbsp. finely chopped fresh dill
Freshly ground black pepper (optional)

1. Preheat oven broiler with rack in highest position (4-5 inches from broiler).

2. Combine olive oil, butter, garlic and salt in small bowl.

3. Place salmon skin-side down on a lightly oiled rimmed baking sheet. (Note: I recommend using a small rimmed baking sheet or, better yet, creating a confined space for the salmon by placing it on a piece of aluminum foil with the ends folded up to make a 1/2-inch rim around it. This contains the oil and butter as the fish cooks, making it less likely to spread out and burn and also more likely to add good flavor to the fish). Spread the garlic mixture evenly on top of the salmon. Place under the broiler and broil for about 5 minutes. Turn the fish over and broil for another 5 minutes until desired doneness is achieved. Remove from oven.

4. While the salmon cooks, stir together the yogurt, horseradish and dill. If desired, add black pepper. When the salmon is finished, remove and discard the skin, divide the fish into two servings and serve it topped with the yogurt-dill sauce.

Cocktail: Last Word

Is it possible to have the last word on the Last Word? Perhaps not. It's a drink that just keeps resurfacing.

I learned about this cocktail via Twitter. What started as a tweet by Barina Craft to mark Aviation Day (August 19), appropriately with the Aviation Cocktail, morphed into a discussion of maraschino liqueur cocktails. After I'd suggested the Aviation Cocktail would probably be really good with Aviation Gin, said gin maker suggested checking out the Last Word. I looked it up and it sounded great.

As far as its history goes, this is a prohibition-era cocktail invented in the '20s at the Detroit Athletic Club, but it wasn't well known until the 1950s when Ted Saucier, a Waldorf-Astoria Hotel publicist, include the drink's recipe in his Bottoms Up cocktail book.

Flash forward another 50 years or so and the drink gets repopularized in Seattle by Zig Zag Café bartender Murray Stenson. According to Wikipedia, the drink became a cult hit and its popularity spread once again. It appears in Jim Meehan's modern classic, The PDT Cocktail Book.

So beloved is Stenson that when he suffered heart problem last year, a fund was formed to help him with medical expenses. Reports in the spring suggest he was recovering well. Surely he'll be back behind the bar again soon. Just like this drink.

The Last Word is wonderfully balanced between being tart and sweet, with just a bit of herbal flavor from the chartreuse. Of course, since they suggested it, I made it with Aviation gin, which has quickly become one of my favorites.

Last Word

3/4 oz. Aviation gin
3/4 oz. Green Chartreuse
3/4 oz. Luxardo maraschino liqueur
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
Lime twist (optional garnish)

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until very cold and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lime twist.

Spinach-Tomato Lasagna with Sausage

Needing to use up some of the food in my pantry, I searched for a recipe that would take out a couple of big-ticket items: a box of no-boil spinach lasagna noodles from Eataly and a large can of San Marzano peeled tomatoes. Lasagna is the perfect vehicle for such an enterprise, as its versatility makes it idea for all sorts of ingredients. I also used up some frozen spinach!

I adapted this recipe from The Key Ingredient, a recipe sharing site. It's originally from Cook's Country, the rustic Cook's Illustrated offshoot. I substituted a little lean Italian-style chicken sausage for some of the spinach, upped the quality (and reduced the quantity) of ricotta cheese by using fresh instead of part-skim, reduced the parmesan and omitted the eggs.

As such, it's a pretty basic lasagna that doesn't require an unusual amount of labor to come together as a tasty, satisfying meal. What hot dish coming out of the oven topped with melted, browned cheese is ever really bad anyway?

Spinach-Tomato Lasagna with Sausage
Adapted from Spinach and Tomato Lasagna, Cook's Country via The Key Ingredient

20 oz. frozen chopped spinach (I used two 10-oz. packages)
3 1/2 lb. of tomatoes (Use fresh, canned or a mix of both: I used half fresh tomatoes and half canned peeled San Marzano tomatoes--which was one 28-oz. can).
8 oz. mild Italian chicken sausage, removed from casings
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 sweet onion, diced
Salt, to taste
5 garlic cloves, minced
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Freshly ground black pepper
6 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
8 oz. (about 1 cup) fresh ricotta cheese
12 no-boil spinach lasagna noodles (I used Italian green lasagna noodles available at Eataly)
12 ounces whole-milk mozzarella cheese, shredded (3 cups)
1 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Cook spinach according to package directions in the microwave. Set aside to cool a bit and then squeeze out any excess moisture, reserving about 1/4 cup of the spinach liquid.

3. Pulse the tomatoes in a food processor until pureed.

4. Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add sausage and cook, stirring occasionally until browned, about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.2. Add 1 tbsp. olive oil to the pan. When hot, add onion, season with salt and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper flakes and pepper and cook another 3-5 minutes. Transfer the pureed tomatoes and 1/2 cup of the drained cooked spinach to the pan and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until thickened. Stir in the basil.

5. Add the ricotta, the rest of the spinach, and 2 tbsp. of the reserved spinach liquid to a food processor. Process until smooth. Add additional spinach liquid of the mixture seems too thick to easily spread.

6. Build the lasagna: In a 9 X 13 baking sheet, start by spreading about 1 1/4 cup of the tomato sauce on the bottom. Top with three noodles (lay crosswise and do not overlap noodles), spread 1/3 of the ricotta-spinach mixture on top of the noodles, about 1/4 of the mozzarella, 1/4 of the parmesan and finally another 1 1/4 cup of tomato sauce. Repeat two more times: (noodles, ricotta, cheeses and sauce), then top with the last 3 noodles, any remaining sauce and the remaining cheeses. Bake the lasagna in the oven until the cheese has melted and browned and the lasagna bubbles around the edges, about 40-45 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool 5 to 10 minutes before cutting.

The Feed: September 4, 2013

The Feed is my weekly round up of interesting food-related stories from newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites.

Washington Post: “Wine: How do you unlock its flavors in your glass?,” by Dave McIntyre.
For the uninitiated, wine-tasting may seem like either an impossible skill or a bunch of hooey. Even for the initiated, it’s got a certain mystique. I still struggle to describe wines I like. There are certain types of cabernet I really love, for example, but darned if I find it basically impossible to tell people why. I just know when I get one. This week’s Post wine column offers an in-depth explanation of wine-tasting: how to use not just taste but other senses as well to identify a wine’s general age, body and flavor. McIntyre’s wine columns have always been an engaging read, but this year, with his dedication to more thoroughly explaining winemaking and its appreciation, his writing has been particularly enlightening.

NPR: “Restaurant Critic Finds Meaning At The Olive Garden In 'Grand Forks',” by NPR Staff.
Remember Marilyn Hagerty? In case you forgot, she’s the small-town restaurant critic from Grand Forks, North Dakota whose review last year of the local Olive Garden gained her national fame, as well as big-time industry friends like Anthony Bourdain. A collection of her reviews have been published as the aptly titled Grand Forks: A History of American Dining in 128 Reviews. Bourdain contributes a foreword.

NPR: “Don't Panic! Your Questions On (Not) Washing Raw Chickens,” by Maria Godoy.
Last week, The Feed included an NPR story warning home cooks not to rinse their chicken before cooking it. Apparently, it caused a firestorm of comments, so its writer, Godoy, did a follow-up Q&A with a food safety expert this week, further explaining the rationale behind the admonition (which stands, by the way).

Eater: “Cocktail U: Watch Dave Arnold Make a Debbie (Gibson),” by Amanda Kludt.
As part of Eater’s Cocktail University, Booker & Dax bartender Dave Arnold concocts a version of the Gibson martini he names for one of my favorite late ‘80s pop stars, Miss Debbie Gibson. He makes it with what must be a rather intensely flavored onion liquor, rather than the traditional onion garnish. Brilliant idea!

New York Times: “Reporter’s Notebook: I’ll Have What You’re Having,” by Jeff Gordinier.
The sharing thing seems so ubiquitous now that I doubt it will go away anytime soon. Although popularized by the tapas movement, Gordinier writes about another sharing phenomenon: the entrée for two. These tend to be well-proportioned and are thus easier to share than, say, a plate of three shrimp to divide among four people. I’ve been lucky to eat two of the entrees he writes about: the (good but overrated) roast chicken for two at The NoMad and the (absolutely divine) pork chop for two with stuffing at Ma Peche.

The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen: “Apricot Hand Pies,” by Susan Palmer.
Palmer pitched these as the perfect Labor Day weekend barbecue treat, but I bet they would be great at any fall celebration. Even making them might be worth celebrating: they sound delicious and fun. “Hand pies” are just pies but really small (so they fit in your hand). She made her with apricots, but I think I see some apple hand pies in my future.

Wall Street Journal: “How Snacking Became Respectable,” by Abigail Carroll.
A history of snacking in America shows the tradition of pleasurable between-meal eating has come a long way. I love that the original snack was the peanut, our household’s favorite just-got-home-from-work snack.

Restaurant: Table (Washington D.C.)

[Update: Table has closed.]

To say a lot of new restaurants have opened recently in D.C. is an understatement. The city has seen an explosion of new dining options in the past 12 months, particularly along corridors like 14th Street NW and H Street NE. The Shaw neighborhood is another such place, where Table is perhaps one of the buzziest openings of all. Bon Appétit nominated it as one of America's 50 best new restaurants this year (along with Daikaya, the other D.C. spot on the list) and the Washington Post awarded it 2.5 stars.

Burrata with zucchini anchovy terrine

Like a lot of restaurants these days, Table places its emphasis on serving quality, seasonal ingredients. Aspects of the restaurant may seem "high concept," like its menus. Initially, it was reported that Table wouldn't have a printed menu, but would project it on the wall, a cost-saving and efficiency measure to make updating the constantly changing menu easier. That was apparently scrapped in favor of another unusual menu: hand-written.

If that sounds a bit complicated, the food itself is not. Some dishes may lean a little French or Italian, but they all speak the same language of seasonal and simple. Those expecting an extra flourish may be disappointed in the lack of obvious "wow" factors, but the food that came out of the nearby kitchen excelled at highlighting the flavors of the key ingredients.

Tomato-watermelon salad

We started the evening with the burrata mozzarella and tomato dish. The burrata, a trendy cheese these days, was typically creamy and had a nice tang. It came served with a wafer-thin slice of toast and grilled zucchini and anchovy terrine. If you're not an anchovy fan, be warned: the terrine had thick slices of the meaty cured fish, which I enjoyed, but Chris found too fishy.

This time of year, good-quality tomatoes need little else to supplement their good flavor. So the tomato dish, with its accompanying cubes of watermelon and sprinkle of herbs, was appropriately simple. The slight crunch of sea salt and a sprinkle of herbs the only accoutrement to the ripe tomatoes and refreshing melon cubes.

Grilled Arctic char with summer squash

Our entrees were similarly simple: a protein accompanied by side vegetables. No special extras, but none were really needed. The Arctic char was perfectly cooked. The skin was crispy the flesh was tender, moist and cooked through.

Although Guinea hen was on the menu, our server explained that it was out--no doubt a not unusual issue at a restaurant striving to serve only the freshest available ingredients. In fact, there was a somewhat lengthy discussion of menu substitutions at the beginning of the night. Chris opted for a non-menu item: the crispy skin roasted chicken, a juicy (probably brined) chicken breast and wing served with braised mixed vegetables.

Roasted chicken with vegetables

With either entree, I wouldn't discount the vegetable sides. They were not afterthoughts, but very good on their own, especially the summer squash with my fish and the braised celery with the chicken. This is a kitchen that obviously loves its vegetables as much as its proteins.

The flan dessert was similarly good and had a perfect texture that balanced nicely with the poached peaches and madeline. Although billed as "ginger" flan, It tasted to me more of vanilla than ginger, apart from the fried ginger garnish. The peach madeline that accompanied was a nice touch.

Ginger flan with peaches

So let's talk about that kitchen. It's in the dining room. Not an opening into the kitchen, but literally in the same room. Thus diners can watch Chef de Cuisine Patrick Robinson and his cooks as they work (Chef Frederik de Pue was not on hand, perhaps he was at his other restaurant Azur, which opened in Penn Quarter shortly after Table's opening). As an avid home cook, I also liked seeing all their kitchen equipment on display on large open plywood shelves against the far wall.

In addition to the kitchen, the minimalist space has other appealing elements, including a glass-paned garage door that hints at the space's former life. Looking out those windows and into the recently gentrified surroundings, I wondered what used to exist at 903 N Street NW. Not the recent previous owner, a late '00s cocktail bar called The Space, but "back in the day."

One area I thought the restaurant could use some work it was with the service. There were no problems--people were polite and our food arrived as expected--but I felt like there was a lack of engagement. In particular, after receiving our food, no one came back to check on us. Although there were no problems, this is an important step to make sure diners are satisfied that everything is in order and nothing else is desired. It's also a nice opportunity to learn more about the food, if you're so inclined. Just the previous day I'd eaten lunch in a restaurant where the server's return visit to check on me led to a great discussion about how the restaurant prepared the chicken I was eating. I would have welcomed the opportunity for similar interaction at Table. Given the closeness of the diners and staff, it was a bit surprising to also have this feeling of distance.

Table is a nice addition to the rapidly changing space around the D.C. Convention Center. It's nice to see independent restaurants filling a region that could have easily been dominated by boring chains. Despite it being an area likely to draw a lot of travelers, it's nice to see locals are also being catered to. Perhaps travelers would be delighted by it too.

Table, 903 N Street NW (9th and N), Washington, D.C. (Shaw, near Convention Center Metro). (202) 588-5200. Reservations: Open Table.

Sweet Corn and Carrot Soup

Happy Labor Day! Is it feeling like fall is approaching yet? Not really around D.C., where it's nice and muggy lately. Still, I tell myself cooler weather is just around the corner.

This is a great recipe for this time of year because it makes use of seasonal vegetables and can be served warm or cold, depending on your mood and the ambient temperature. As a pureed soup, it has a pretty smooth texture, but to add a little textural interest I reserved some raw corn kernels to toss in at the end.

Sweet Corn and Carrot Soup

2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 large (or 4 small) shallots, minced
5-6 carrots, peeled and diced
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
Seasoned salt (or plain salt), to taste
5 ears of corn, kernels cut off and cobs reserved
6 cups water
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Pinch of cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
1/4 cup heavy cream
Smoked paprika, to taste
Snipped fresh chives

1. Heat olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add shallots and carrots and sauté until softened and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Season with salt, then add garlic and all but 1 cup of the corn kernels, sautéing another 5 minutes. Add water, reserved corn cobs and cayenne pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.

2. Remove corn cobs and discard. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until smooth (alternatively, transfer in batches to a food processor and puree). Stir in the reserved uncooked corn kernels and heavy cream. Serve in shallow bowls topped with a sprinkle of smoked paprika and chives.