Smokey Pork Pappardelle

Alright, so. My excuse didn't stick. It's been weeks and I'm still on the outs with the kitchen. My foot is better, I've been to the gym every day but one since my last post (and incidentally, am as light as I've ever been as an adult) and I've even tried cooking a bit. It's a measure of how checked out I am, though, that I didn't take one measly photo. Blah.

What is carrying me through? Well, let me tell you about my freezer. Because sauce is so.... saucy... we are often left with more than enough leftover for multiple dinners. Out of the freezer and into the pot and we can have a delicious home-cooked dinner in a matter of minutes. I cannot wait to have a garage that I can put a giant freezer in - seriously. (This is how I know I'm grown-up now, I long for appliances.) I am more than happy to make some pasta while the sauce reheats - I find it soothing.

So. Three hours in the oven. Don't worry about it. Pop it in and wander off. You won't go far, believe you me, because the smell coming from your oven will intoxicate you. Seriously. It's meaty and deep yet sweet... and feels just like home. I really like that the sauce is strained, because bits other than pork would have been out of place. Smooth sauce, tender pork, and home made pasta - really can't go wrong.

The recipe will probably feed 6 at once, but in our case, we ended up with three meals.


Smokey Pork Pappardelle
c/o Food & Wine Magazine, July 2008
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/smoky-pork-pappardelle

For the luscious meat sauce here, Gerard Craft braises pork with apples and honey, which adds some unexpected sweetness. Another surprise: He finishes the pasta with a sprinkling of smoked salt.

One 2-pound piece of boneless pork shoulder
Smoked sea salt
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 Granny Smith apple, cut into 1-inch dice
1 medium onion, cut into 1-inch dice
1 carrot, cut into 1-inch dice
1 celery rib, cut into 1-inch dice
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 thyme sprigs
1/2 cup tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups chicken stock or low-sodium broth
1/3 cup Champagne vinegar
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons mascarpone cheese
Freshly ground pepper
1 pound pappardelle
1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Season the pork with 1 1/2 tablespoons of smoked salt. In a medium, enameled cast-iron casserole, heat the canola oil until shimmering. Add the pork and cook over moderately high heat, turning, until browned on all sides, 15 minutes. Transfer the pork to a plate.

Add the apple, onion, carrot, celery, garlic and thyme to the casserole and cook over moderate heat until beginning to brown, about 6 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring, until it deepens in color, about 2 minutes. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Add the chicken stock, vinegar and honey and bring to a simmer. Add the pork, cover and transfer the casserole to the oven. Braise the pork for about 3 hours, turning once halfway through, until very tender.

Transfer the pork to a plate. Strain the sauce into a large bowl, gently pressing on the solids. Pour the sauce back into the pot. Using 2 forks, shred the pork; discard any large pieces of fat. Transfer the shredded pork to the sauce and stir in the mascarpone. Season the sauce with smoked salt and pepper. Cover and keep warm.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pappardelle until al dente. Drain the pasta and transfer to the casserole with the sauce. Toss the pasta with the sauce and the parsley over moderate heat until well coated, about 1 minute. Transfer the pasta to warm bowls. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with smoked salt and serve.

Make ahead: The sauce can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Wine: Craft’s smoky-sweet pappardelle will pair well with a red that has enough rich fruit not to be overwhelmed by the dish’s luxurious flavors. Southern Italy seems to specialize in reds of that nature, especially the flat, warm vineyards of Puglia and its primary grape variety, Negroamaro. Try the peppery 2005 Li Veli Pezzo Morgana Salice Salentino or the figgy 2006 La Corte Salice Salentino.

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Shrimp and Scallop Arrabiata

Presto Pasta Night, o, how I miss thee!! It's been a while since we've had any pasta (this recipe is from early February!), but I missed emailing with Ruth, so I've pulled this arrabiata out of the draft black-hole that is my blogger! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!!

I made my own pasta, which is why the ribbons above are thicker than normal linguine. I don't know why I have such a hard time cutting my pasta smaller... I think I just like the thicker ribbons and my hands act accordingly. Fresh pasta has such a nice chew to it, and considering how easy it is, I don't know that I can go back to store-bought (at least for the types I'm capable of making.)

What's so cool about this pasta sauce is how flavorful it is for how quickly it came together. In less than 10 minutes, dinner is done. Woo! We like an "angrier" arrabiata, so I probably used double the called-for red pepper flakes. My other change was to use fire-roasted canned tomatoes. I love the depth of flavor it provides to sauces, especially this one.

All in all, this was a real keeper. It wasn't fancy, sure, but it was spicy and delicious. Head on over to Ruth's round-up tomorrow for more fabulous pasta dishes!

Shrimp and Scallop Arrabbiata
c/o Cooking Light Magazine, March 2007
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1591041

Arrabbiata is Italian for "angry" and often refers to the classic combination of tomatoes, pancetta, and hot pepper. Substitute bacon for the pancetta, if you prefer.

1 (9-ounce) package fresh linguine
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
8 ounces peeled and deveined large shrimp
8 ounces bay scallops
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup onion, chopped
2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 ounce pancetta, chopped
4 (14.5-ounce) cans organic stewed tomatoes, with juices
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain. Set aside and keep warm.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and scallops to pan; sprinkle with salt. Sauté 3 minutes or until almost done. Remove shrimp mixture from pan.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, fennel seeds, pepper, and pancetta to pan; sauté 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Return shrimp mixture to pan; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat. Serve shrimp mixture over pasta. Sprinkle with basil.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup pasta, 2 cups shrimp mixture, and 2 teaspoons basil)

cals 480; fat 11.9g; sat 2.2g; protein 33.2g; cholesterol 110mg; sodium 718mg; fiber 5.7g; carbs 55.4g

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Fresh Tagliatelle with Sprouting Broccoli and Oozy Cheese Sauce

For this week's Presto Pasta Night, I bring you a most glorious Jamie Oliver recipe. I went on a binge a few weekends ago and watched all my saved-up cooking shows, and this pasta dish was featured in his episode on eggs. I made sure to do as he asked and used farm-happy eggs in both the pasta and sauce.

Now, the pasta was something of a departure for me. I'd never made it in the food processor before, and I'd never not let it rest for 30 minutes before I rolled it out. I would probably have questioned the instructions, had I not just watched Jamie do it on television. Ya, ya, tv magic is often in play, but if you've seen his episodes, he doesn't appear to use too much trickery. My trust in him, I went forth and processed and didn't wait to roll, and as you can see, the pasta came out nicely. I am converted.

I mentioned a couple days ago that I don't like much cheese. This recipe may then be confusing. But fontina is way lower on the Stinkiness Scale, and it was smooth and creamy and oozy... all things that get me to like cheese better. His method of gently warming the creme fraiche and cheeses over top of the pasta water is pure genius, if you ask me. I put the pot of water on and the pan on top while I made the pasta. I've rarely done all the prep before I start cooking, so it was nice to be able to stage everything as I went.

If you are comforted by a nice, velvety smooth pasta, this could be heaven for you. I was floored by the cheesy aroma wafting from the pasta as I poured the sauce on it. I know I yammered about smells just yesterday and I meant it at the time. But this pasta blows that soup's smell out of the water. I could be kind and just say that they're different (in the way I find both Jack and Charlie hot, but for different reasons). But I would be lying. Or, at least, I wouldn't mean it. The beautiful cheesy smell just appeals to me more. Could have been my mood at the time, or the weather or something, I guess. I enjoyed them both, don't get me wrong. This one just wins. At least it had the baby broccoli as the token vegetable of the evening, so I didn't feel all bad about it. :)

Fresh Tagliatelle with Sprouting Broccoli and Oozy Cheese Sauce
c/o Jamie at Home, Food Network TV
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_120489,00.html

The hero of this dish (apart from the eggs, of course!) is fontina, a delicious Italian mountain cheese used for melting, available in good cheese shops and delis. But any combination of Parmesan, pecorino, taleggio or Gruyere cheeses will also work well.

For the pasta:
4 large free-range or organic eggs
2 cups pasta flour, plus extra for dusting
Sea salt

For the cheese sauce:
1 cup creme fraiche
5 ounces sliced fontina or other nice melting cheese
5 ounces freshly grated Parmesan
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound purple sprouting broccoli
2 large free-range or organic egg yolks
1 small bunch fresh marjoram, oregano or thyme tips, leaves picked

Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving
Extra-virgin olive oil

You can buy ready-made dried or fresh tagliatelle, but this is a really quick way to make your own.

Crack the eggs into a food processor and add the flour. Whiz it up and listen for the sound changing to a rumble - this means the dough is coming together nicely. Turn the power off and test the consistency by pinching the dough. If it's a bit sticky add a little more flour and pulse again.

Tip the dough mixture onto a floured surface and shape it into a ball using your hands. Give it a little knead until smooth, then divide your dough into 4 equal parts. Start on the thickest setting of your pasta machine and run the first bit of dough through 4 or 5 times, moving the rollers closer together each time until the pasta is silky, smooth and about as thick as a CD. Flour your finished sheet generously, then fold it up and cut across into 1/2-inch strips. Gather all the slices together and toss them through your fingers, with a little flour, to open them up and make your pile of tagliatelle. Place to 1 side and repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. In a bowl large enough to rest on top of the pan, put your creme fraiche, fontina or other melting cheese and your Parmesan with a pinch of salt and pepper. Place the bowl over the pan for the cheeses to slowly melt. It won't take long. Meanwhile, trim any dry ends off the broccoli, then finely slice the stalks diagonally and leave the florets whole (cutting any larger ones in half).

At this point the cheese sauce should be lovely and oozy, so remove the bowl from above the pan and drop the pasta and broccoli into the boiling water. Boil hard for 2 to 3 minutes, until the pasta is just cooked through. Whip up the 2 egg yolks and the marjoram, or other chosen herb leaves, into the sauce. Drain the pasta and broccoli, reserving a little of the cooking water, and quickly toss them with the sauce - the heat from the pasta will be enough to cook the eggs through. If the sauce is a little thick, add a few splashes of cooking water to make it silky and loose. Taste and season, if necessary. Serve as quickly as you can, with some extra Parmesan sprinkled over the top and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. Grand!

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Pappardelle with a Ragu of Tiny Meatballs

Science! Hurry up and learn to clone people (but not in a scary Island kind of way), so you can make many many more Jamie Olivers. Many. Lots. Enough to go around, I say. Please put me on your list for three Jamies. Thanks.

I am smitten with his show, for sure. I have a lot of love for his books, too. His last one, Cook with Jamie, looks all rough-and-tumble on the cover. Yah, he's smiling... but his arms are crossed... and that knife in the counter? He just stab that in there an then vamp for the camera? Love it.

He's spot on when he says that you can make it all ahead of time. I made the meatballs and sauce while Dave was at a hockey game last week. I stopped at the "toss the meatballs into the sauce"step, before the 10-15 minutes of additional simmering. I let it cool and then put the whole pot in the fridge. The next night, I took the pot out when I got home, placed it on the stove and gave it gentle heat while I made the pasta. In the time it took me to make the pasta start to finish, the sauce and meatballs were ready and we had this amazing dinner. (Makes a great lunch the day after, too!)

You may think it weird to put cinnamon and so much nutmeg into meatballs (its ok, I did too). I even thought it a tad strange to be putting lemon zest into them. You'll get over it. Don't worry. You'll like it. I figured, if I like them in my bolognese, I'd like them in these meatballs. And I did.

These tiny meatballs have something really special going for them: they're tiny. You don't have to fight over them, you don't have to cut into them to get a bite. Just swirl some pasta on your fork and stab a meatball and you're set! Also nice - the sauce wasn't big and bulky. There was just enough to coat the meatballs and the pasta without junking the place up. (However, I don't know if that's normal or just how it turned out that way once I reheated it.)

Now, you don't have to make this recipe ahead. It didn't take long to pull together. I only did so because I had the free time that evening with the husband away, and my beef thawed faster than I thought it would. If we'd had extra leftovers, I am sure this would have made a nice freezer dinner, too.


Pappardelle with a Ragu of Tiny Meatballs
c/o Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook, by Jamie Oliver

This is a fantastic, classic, easy-pleaser of a dish. Make this for a dinner party or for your family and you’ll be incredibly popular! The brilliant thing about it is that you can make the meatballs, the pasta, and the sauce in advance, so when it comes to putting it all together it can be quite quick. If you’re making fresh pasta, try cutting it out using a crinkly cutter as I’ve done in this picture – I think it just takes it to another league. Of course you can use dried pappardelle or tagliatelle instead.

When it comes to the meatballs, I would suggest that you ask your butcher to grind the beef in front of you; that way you know exactly what you’re getting and that it’s nice and fresh. The reason I mention this is because very often (and I’m not for a minute suggesting your butcher is a con-man) ground meat gets treated a little bit like a dustbin for random cuts of meat. So if you can be specific about what you want, you might as well be. Or you can buy the cuts of meat yourself and pulse them up in your food processor when you get home.

Serves 4-6.

1 x basic pasta dough or use 1 lb good-quality dried pappardelle
A knob of butter
Parmesan cheese

For the meatballs
1 lb good-quality coarse ground beef (chuck, skirt or brisket)
1-2 dried chilies, crumbled
A pinch of ground cinnamon
½ a nutmeg, grated
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 large free-range or organic egg
A handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
Zest of 1 lemon

For the tomato sauce
Olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
A bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks chopped
1 fresh red chili, pierced with the tip of a knife
2 x 14 oz. cans good-quality plum tomatoes
A little swig of red wine vinegar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

If you’re making fresh pappardelle to this first and lay it out on a floured pan while you get on with the meatballs and tomato sauce. To make your meatballs, mix and scrunch together all the meatball ingredients in your hands and shape into marble-sized balls. When rolling the meatballs, run your hands under cold water every now and then – it will help to make the meatballs dense and hold their shape better. Place them in a pan and put in the fridge while you make your tomato sauce.

Get a pan on the heat and add a glug of olive oil to it. Gently fry the garlic, basil stalks and the whole chili, then add the tomatoes and red wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper then gently simmer for half an hour.

Heat up a little olive oil in a frying pan and throw in your meatballs. Cook until they’ve got a really good color on them, and then add them to your tomato sauce. Remove the chili from the sauce and check for seasoning. Continue to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, if you’re using dried pasta, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook according to the package instructions. Otherwise, when your meatballs are almost done, cook your fresh pasta for 2 to 3 minutes until al dente. Drain the pappardelle in a colander, reserving a little of the cooking water, then toss it in the meatball sauce. Add the knob of butter, the Parmesan and tear over half the basil leaves. Now, toss around to coat the pasta. Add a little bit of cooking water to loosen the sauce if needed. When it’s superb, serve on a big platter or divide up between individual plates, scatter with the rest of the basil leaves, grate over some Parmesan and serve as soon as possible.

Matt’s wine suggestion: Italian red – Sangiovese

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Baked Goat Cheese and Roasted Winter Squash over Garlicky Fettuccine

I'll admit it. I have a problem. I tend to focus on an ingredient and then make it eleventy billion ways. At that point, Dave is tired of eating it, so I move on to something else. It may take a while for me to fixate on something new, but the fixation is inevitable. I don't see what's so wrong with it, myself. I look at it as fully exploring and experimenting with an ingredient. Or something. :)

This dish features two of my more recent loves (butternut squash and fresh pasta), plus one I can't let go (goat cheese). I think all three are easily explainable, don't you? It's Winter, and butternut squash is in season, so I am taking advantage of the opportunity to eat seasonably. Fresh pasta is so easy to make (provided you have the right equipment, otherwise not so much) and tastes so so nice. And the goat cheese? Well... it's goat cheese! What's not to like???

The cubing of all that squash was a bit time consuming, but very worth it. I really like recipes that let you pop them in the oven for a while. I use that time to clean up the kitchen or the apartment or generally horse around. Before I know it, dinner is ready! Rad!

I didn't expect to love the garlicky fettuccine as much as I did. But combined with the creamy roasted squash, the sweet bell pepper, and the tangy goat cheese... omg.... heaven! I was also partially convinced that the goat cheese would ooze all over the place in the oven, but it didn't. Don't be upset if the bread crumbs don't totally stick to the cheese, mine didn't either.

We had this on a Friday night and then had the leftover veg and cheese on new pasta for lunch on Saturday and they were just as good the second day. I highly recommend this. Highly. Go eat it. :)

Edit: I almost forgot AGAIN!!!! (skip blogging for a while and you lose your brains!) Pop on over to Ruth's blog, Once Upon a Feast for her weekly Presto Pasta Night Roundups! She collects some of the most amazing pasta dishes I've ever seen and shares them with us every Friday! Once you're there, check out her other tasty entries! When I have no idea what I'm going to make for dinner, I know that I can go to Ruth's site and find something healthy and delicious!


Baked Goat Cheese and Roasted Winter Squash over Garlicky Fettuccine
c/o Cooking Light Magazine, December 2006
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1559238

6 cups (1-inch) cubed peeled kabocha or butternut squash (about 2 1/4 pounds)
1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1 teaspoon chopped fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 (4-ounce) packages goat cheese
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 pound uncooked fettuccine
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
Rosemary sprigs (optional)

Preheat oven to 425°.

Place squash and bell pepper in a large bowl. Add 1 tablespoon oil; toss well. Arrange vegetables in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt, rosemary, and black pepper. Bake at 425° for 40 minutes, stirring once.

Place goat cheese in freezer 10 minutes. Cut cheese crosswise into 8 equal rounds. Place breadcrumbs in a shallow bowl. Dredge each round in breadcrumbs; place on a baking sheet. Bake at 425° for 6 minutes.
Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking water. Return pasta to pan; add reserved pasta cooking water, remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, red pepper, and garlic, tossing to coat. Place 1 1/4 cups pasta in each of 8 shallow bowls; top each serving with about 1/2 cup squash mixture and 1 goat cheese round. Garnish with rosemary sprigs, if desired.

Yield: 8 servings

cals 423, fat 14.1g, sat fat 7.4g, protein 17.8g, cholesterol 30mg, calcium 290mg, sodium 439mg, fiber 2.7g, iron 2.1mg, carbs 54.7g

See the recipe...