Classic Carbonara

On a cold or dreary day, there's nothing like a creamy plate of spaghetti carbonara. I know I've made the leek carbonara before, but I wanted to go for a really basic, classic carbonara. Usually you're supposed to use dried pasta, but after watching Master of None all weekend, I was inspired to make it with fresh spaghetti. Yum! It's so good and creamy and salty and delicious, and the little bites of crispy pancetta are just the best. This is easy and cheap, too, so a great weeknight dinner. 

Raw Tomato Pasta Sauce

Tomatoes are so, so good right now, I'm eating them as much as possible. I usually make raw tomato sauce like this, but this time I took one big tomato and grated half of it on a box grater and chopped up the other half. The shredded part makes a nice, juicy base. I added some olive oil, a capful of balsamic vinegar, a drizzle of honey, fresh pepper, a big pinch of red pepper flakes, one grated garlic clove, and some basil. Mix it all up and let it sit for 10 minutes to a couple of hours. 

Uni Pasta with Crab

Yum! This is such a subtle, tasty pasta. I know some people are turned off by uni (sea urchin), but you wouldn't know it was in here. It just gives a subtle sweet, briny flavor. I was at Cor J and saw that they had uni and I'd always wanted to try it, so I googled around and found this recipe. I based this on that. It's such an elegant pasta, especially with fresh tagliatelle. It was a perfect Valentine's Day starter. (We ate too much.)

Frersh Garganelli with Tangy Lamb Ragu

This is such a flavorful, hearty pasta - perfect for cold weather. Your house will smell amazing. I love using balsamic vinegar in braising. It adds such a nice flavor. I made the garganelli, but you can use rigatoni too. 

Ingredients:

1 lamb shank

1/2 cup flour

1 tbsp olive oil 

1 large onion, diced

1 small leek, thinly sliced

1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped 

1 celery stock, finely chopped

2 large cloves garlic, minced

Zucchini Carbonara

I got out to Southampton Friday night and we didn't feel like going to the grocery store, but needed dinner. If you have eggs, bacon, parm, and onion (and pasta), you can make it. I went out to the garden and grabbed some zucchini and parsley to lighten it up a little. It was so easy and really tasty, and the zucchini gives it a bit of a summery bent - and it's a good way to use up zucchini if you have a lot.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

5 strips of bacon, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces

2 small zucchini, cut into match sticks

1 large leek (or onion) thinly sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/3 cup parm or pecorini

2 eggs

small handful of parsley, chopped

salt and pepper

Pasta

Ramp Spaghetti

This is a Maria Batali recipe - very simple and just highlighting the ramp flavor. This is a perfect for a quick weeknight dinner.

Easy Scallop Spaghetti

I love going to Cor J in Hampton Bays for seafood. It's the best. Big variety and reasonably priced. This time I went looking for Peconic bay scallops, but unfortunately they didn't have any that day. I got sea scallops instead. I wanted to do a simple pasta and found this recipe online that sounded perfect. It was really simple, fresh, and light.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

6-10 sea scallops

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1/2 lb spaghetti

olive oil

butter

handful parsley, cleaned, dried, and chopped

white wine

Easy Oven Tomato Sauce

Oh wow. This is a game changing pasta sauce. It was so tangy and bright and rich, and the best part, EASY. So easy. You just throw it all in a baking dish and put it in the oven. I was inspired by this recipe, but tweaked it a little to give it a little of a puttanesca feel. We finished dinner in record time. Yum! It would also be great for a big group. Lasagna has that great smell and flavor of slightly burnt tomato sauce from the bits that stick to the pan and brown up - this has it too and it's delicious. Your kitchen/house/apartment will smell like heaven.

Ricotta Cavatelli with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

We had ricotta cavatelli with broccoli rabe and sausage at Battersby and it was amazing, so I was inspired to try it myself. Since most normal/sane people don't make their own cavatelli, I'd suggest looking for this frozen at an Italian specialty store. (If anyone does want to learn to make homemade ricotta cavatelli, let me know and I'll put that up!) It's a great winter meal.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1/2 lb fresh ricotta cavatelli

2 links sweet Italian sausage, casings removed

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

Perciatelli with Sausage and Kale Ragu

I had some leftover hot Italian sausage and wanted to make a cozy, hearty pasta to help fight off this Polar Vortex. To add some semblance of healthiness, I threw in some kale. I made a really tasty ragu and served it with perciatelli - a great, hollow noodle like bucatini - good texture, but you can use whatever pasta you'd like. This is an easy and really great sauce, and a nice, cheap dinner,

Served 2-4
Ingredients:
1/2 lb perciatelli
4 links hot Italian sausage, removed from casing
1 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 bunch kale, rinsed, dried and ripped into bite sized pieces
4 slices pickled peppers, chopped
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 28 oz can whole plum tomatoes in their liquid
1 cup chicken stock

Easy Spicy Anchovy Pasta

This is a great, quick dinner. Jamie loved it. (He just mmmed over my shoulder looking at the picture.) It's cheap and easy and may become a new favorite. I know anchovies turn some people off, but you wouldn't know they were in there unless you made it yourself. Jamie didn't know. It just adds a nice salty flavor. The bread crumbs are a crunchy addition.

Serves 2-4 (depending how hungry you are)

Ingredients:

1/2 box farfalle (or any other pasta - spaghetti would be good)

olive oil

5 anchovy fillets

3 cloves garlic, minced

big pinch red pepper flakes

bread crumbs

pecorino

Papardelle with Veal and Sausage Ragu

If you need to impress friends for dinner, this is a great way to do it. We had our friends Funk and Bettina over last weekend and I wanted to make fresh pasta. I was perusing epicurious for a recipe, and came across this ragu recipe that had veal, sausage, and porcini mushrooms. It was relatively easy to make, and as long as you make it the night before, all you have to do is warm it up when guests come over. The sausage adds a great, intricate flavor, the veal stew meat is tender, and the porcini mushrooms add a nice earthiness (I only used 1/2 oz because I bought one bag and that's all that was in it). I added 1/4 cup of balsamic to the recipe just because I find it adds a great tang and a little sweetness to ragus (learned it from this recipe). Make this for your next dinner and you won't regret it - especially if it's cold outside. Just toss the ragu with fresh papardelle (make it or buy it) and serve with a little grated pecorino on top.

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 small carrot, peeled, finely chopped

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

8 ounces sweet Italian sausages, casings removed (2 links)

8 ounces veal stew meat, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup dry red wine

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 14-ounce cans low-salt chicken broth

1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes in juice

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage

1 teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed

1 pound fresh pappardelle (homemade or store bought)

Freshly grated Pecorino cheese

Cauliflower Pasta Sauce

I used the leftover cauliflower sauce on some tortellini and it was delicious! Just tossed it with a little grated pecorino. Yum!

Spicy Linguine with Clams

This is a great dinner. The spicy sausage goes really well with the briny clams. Jamie and I devoured it.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 spicy Italian sausage link, casings removed

2 lb clams, scrubbed thoroughly

1 large shallot, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

Olive oil

3 plum tomatoes, diced

Red pepper flakes

1 cup white wine

Linguine

Parsley, minced

Bucatini All'amatriciana

The bucatini all'amatriciana at Lupa is totally delicious, so when I got my new Kitchen Aid and pasta extruder attachment I immediately broke it out to make fresh bucatini. (I know, I'm a weirdo.) Feel free to just buy bucatini like a normal person, but definitely make the sauce. To save a little time, I also used marinara from Faicco's instead of making the basic tomato sauce the recipe calls for, so that makes it easier. The sauce is rich and tart and has a little kick. It really is wonderful. And if you can't find bucatini or perciatelli, spaghetti will work, too. (And if you can't find guanciale you can use pancetta, but guanciale is definitely better in this.)

I got the recipe from Babbo's recipe archive site. Yum!

Serves 6
Ingredients:
1 lb guanciale, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 1/2 red onions, cut in half in 1/2" slices
1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups marinara sauce
1 big handful parsley, roughly chopped
1 1/2 lb bucatini
Pecorino Romano for grating

Gnocchi

 

Since my friend Chelsea got me a food mill (thank you!) and I'd been wanted to try out the gnocchi board again, I made Jamie a special gnocchi dinner last night. (We're not taking our honeymoon until after Christmas, so I wanted this week to have some special dinners.) The gnocchi was super fluffy and nice and the gnocchi board made them look so professional. The food mill also makes nice, uniformly ground up potatoes for the dough. Be sure to cool the ground up potatoes thoroughly before adding the flour for light gnocchi. I altered the recipe a bit from these very fancy gnocchi I made for New Year's.

A few more wedding presents in this pic! And some flowers from the wedding in the back

Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
2 potatoes (I used Russet, but Yukon Gold are good too, or a mix), skin on
1 egg
About 3/4 cups flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup cream
1 crushed garlic clove
1/2 cup grated pecorino romano
salt and lots of freshly grated pepper

Directions:
Put the potatoes in a pot of well salted water. Bring to a boil and cook until very tender - a fork should easily go in and out of the middle of the potato - about 45 minutes. Immediately peel the potatoes. You can hold the potato in one hand with a dish cloth to avoid burning yourself, and peel with a paring knife. The skin will slide right off.

Snap Pea Pesto

I could have sworn my friend Kara told me about snap pea pesto and I'd been dying to try it since last summer and have been anxiously waiting for my snap peas to come out. When I asked her about it, she had no idea. Maybe I dreamed  it? Either way, I tried it out last night. Yum! It's really simple and fresh and summery.

Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
2 cups snap peas (pull off the strings)
4 basil leaves
1/2 large or 1 whole small clove of garlic, mashed into a paste with some kosher salt
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup-1 cup grated Pecorino Romano or Parm
pasta (I used gemelli)

Easy Linguine with Clams

Our adorable intern brought in a whole slew of clams yesterday from her dad's fishing company - thanks, Shannon! I wanted to make an easy dinner because I was a little pressed for time so I did a simple linguine with clams. It's delicious and easy, I just wish I'd bought some good bread to soak up the broth!

Cook linguine in well salted water until al dente. Then pour into a strainer and toss with a little olive oil so it doesn't stick together. Immediately return the pot to the burner and add olive oil, a minced garlic clove, and some red pepper flakes. Saute the garlic for about a minute (less if it starts to brown) and then add the clams, carefully so they don't crack, and a tablespoon or two of water. Put the lid on the pot and let the clams steam until they open - about 5 minutes. Once open, turn off the heat, return the noodles to the pot, and if you have it, add a fresh herb like parsley or basil. Toss it all together and serve! Easy. Make sure to have a bowl on the table to throw the shells.

Spicy Beet Green and Arugula Pasta

I had beet greens and arugula from the garden, so I thought I'd saute them up for an easy weeknight pasta dinner. Just to make it a little special, I made my own pappardelle at Jamie's request. Yum!

(Yes, that's a Missoni for Target towel - it's easier to just lay a big towel down)

The sauteed greens were super tasty, and the little bit of sugar offset the bitterness perfectly. You could definitely eat them on their own as a side, but great tossed with pasta. (I made a few too many noodles so we were a little light on the sauce, but it was still good.)

Prune-Stuffed Gnocchi with Foie Gras Sauce

This is another one from Barbara Lynch. She wrote it up as being kind of hard to do but worth it for special occasions. For my New Year's dinner, I wanted something special and had the luxury of time for making these. It is a lot of work, but if you have a free Saturday and have friends coming over, this is a very indulgent appetizer (or entree if you give everyone a few more gnocchis). The dough is extremely light and fluffy, the prune filling is tart, and sweet, and the earthy, rich foie gras sauce is amazingly decadent. The crunch of the almonds on top is also a nice contrast. Yum!

I had to make a few changes because it's really hard to find 8oz of foie gras, so I used a foie gras spread which worked fine. This has also inspired me to try stuffing other things into gnocchi. Any suggestions? Maybe a pureed bitter green?

Serves 6
Ingredients:
For the Gnocchi:
22 pitted prunes
1 cup Madeira (or Vin Santo, but Madeira's cheaper)
2-2 1/4 lb Idaho or Yukon Gold potatoes (I used 2 Idaho, 1 Yukon gold) unpeeled
1 1/2 - 2 cups all purpose flour, plus more as needed
2 large eggs
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

For the Sauce:
8 oz foie gras spread
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots (about 2 large)
15 sprigs thyme
15 black peppercorns
15 coriander seeds
2 cups Madeira