Tortiglioni with Sausage and Asparagus in Tomato Sauce

After eating plenty of Asian food in the past few days, Porgy asked me to cook a pasta dish so I whipped up this dish. It's pretty simple pasta dish - I added some asparagus and fresh basil to make it


Ingredients:
1 package of Tortiglioni
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried chili pepper flakes
1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage, remove from casing
1 28-oz canned whole tomatoes
1 asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 bunch of basil, de-stem and chifonade

Direction:

• In a large pan, saute minced garlic, shallots and chili pepper flakes in olive oil over medium heat for 3 minutes.
• Add in the sausage, breaking up the pieces and cook until done.
• Roughly chopped the tomatoes and pour everything into the pan.
• Add in half of the basil, cook until the sauce is boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and stir occasionally. Adjust seasoning by adjusting salt, pepper and sugar accordingly.
  
• In a separate pasta pan, heat up enough water to cook pasta. When the water is boiling, blanch the cut asparagus for 2 minutes, rinse over cold water and set aside.
• While the sauce is simmering, cook the Tortiglioni pasta for 2 minutes shorter than the time according to the direction in the package. Drain the pasta and reserve some of the pasta water.
• Add in the pasta and asparagus into the tomato sauce mixture, stir gently and cook for a couple more minutes until pasta is cooked al-dente.
  
• Sprinkle the remaining of chiffonade basil on top.
  

Spaghetti with Spiced Meat Sauce

I was not in the mood to make anything complicated and fancy because I was feeling a bit hungover from Saturday night outing so I made this simple & quick pasta dish using Martha Stewart’s recipe. I substituted the rigatoni with organic spaghetti and used ground veal instead and I used the whole (12 oz) can of tomato paste and pasta water to help thicken the sauce and add more flavor. It turned out really good and we didn’t even need to add grated parmesan cheese on top because it’s already so tasty.


Ingredients:
12 ounces spaghetti (or other pasta)
1 pound ground veal
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 12oz can tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 Serrano pepper, finely diced
1 tablespoon aged balsamic vinegar
¼ cup roughly chopped parsley

Directions:

• In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente; drain, and return to pot. Set aside.
• While pasta is cooking, cook lamb in a large saucepan over medium-high, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, 3 to 5 minutes.
  
• Add Serrano pepper, onion and garlic; season with salt and pepper.
  
• Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is tender, 4 to 6 minutes.
• Stir in tomato paste and cinnamon, and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
  
• Add 2 cups of pasta water; bring to a boil.
  
• Reduce to a simmer, and cook until slightly thickened, 8 to 10 minutes.
  
• Stir in vinegar, and season again with salt and pepper.
  
• Add pasta to the sauce pot and the chopped parsley, and toss to combine.

Pesto alla Trapanese

Tada... a relevation! Today I learned that I don't need meat sauce with my pasta to have a hearty delicious meal. I saw this Pasta with Tomato and Almond Pesto (Pesto alla Trapanese) recipe on America's Test Kitchen's Saucy Italian Favorites episode. I thought it was very clever of the Sicilians to use fresh tomatoes and almonds instead of pine nuts as the main ingredients for their pesto. I like the fact that you can make this dish in less than 20 minutes and still end up with a fantastic satisfying meal. The only thing that I would change if you decide to make this, is to double up the portion because you might find yourself in a similar situation where you can't stop eating because it's so delicious!


Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 12 ounces cherry or grape tomatoes (about 2 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves
• 1 medium garlic clove, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 teaspoon)
• 1 small pepperoncini (hot peppers in vinegar), stemmed, seeded, and minced (about 1/2 teaspoon) - I substituted this with 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes soaked with 1/2 teaspoon of red wine vinegar
• salt
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound pasta, preferably linguine or spaghetti
• 1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated (about 1/2 cup), plus extra for serving

Directions:

• Toast almonds in small skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until pale golden and fragrant, 2 to 4 minutes. Cool almonds to room temperature.
• Process cooled almonds, tomatoes, basil, garlic, pepperoncini (or red pepper flakes with vinegar), and 1 teaspoon salt in food processor until smooth, about 1 minute. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula. With machine running, slowly drizzle in oil, about 30 seconds.
• Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. Add pasta and 1 tablespoon salt and cook until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water; drain pasta and transfer back to cooking pot.
• Add pesto and 1/2 cup Parmesan to cooked pasta, adjusting consistency with reserved pasta cooking water so that pesto coats pasta. Serve immediately, passing Parmesan separately.

Otsu Soba

A couple weeks ago, I made this cold buckwheat soba salad with lightly fried tofu and ginger dressing called Otsu Soba because Porgy and I were craving for something light, refreshing and delicious. I used these two sites, WeHeartFood and DinnerWithJulie for my recipe source and according to one of you they are based on Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks (thanks for letting me know of another wonderful site!) Otsu Soba is a perfect left-over food for us since you don't need to warm it up and you can just eat it cold out of the fridge.

It was my first time cooking with Soba so I was pretty excited about that and now I can't wait to cook another Soba dish... wonder what's next. Maybe Zaru Soba – cold soba noodles with tsuyu dipping sauce?


Ingredients:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons grape seed oil
2 tablespoons sesame oil
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

12 ounces dried soba noodles
12 ounces extra-firm tofu
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cucumber, peeled, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 small handful of cilantro sprigs
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup shredded toasted Nori

Directions:

• Drain and press the tofu for 30 minutes or so, pat it dry, and cut it into 1-inch rectangles.
  
• Make the dressing by combining the rice vinegar, soy sauce, cayenne, salt, grape seed oil, sesame oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, honey, and ginger in a jar and shake vigorously until it's mixed well.
  
• Cook the soba in plenty of rapidly boiling salted water just until tender according to the package direction then drain and rinse well under cold running water.
• In a well-oiled saute pan, brown the tofu on all sides over medium high heat. It took me about 3-4 minutes of each side. Toss gently once and continue cooking for another minute or so until the tofu is firm, golden brown, and bouncy.
  
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the soba, tofu, 1/4 cup cilantro, green onions, cucumber and about half of the dressing. Toss gently until well combined.
• Serve on individual serving bowls (or plates), garnish with more cilantro, toasted sesame seeds and shredded Nori. Add more dressing if needed.
  

Pasta and Asparagus in Mustard Sauce

I got the idea for this mustard sauce from a Julia Child's show where she made a simple salad dressing using mustard. After watching, I thought to myself that it probably make sense to tweak her mustard salad dressing to become a pasta sauce by adding some heavy cream. Since I didn't have any heavy cream, I had to use corn starch dissolved in water. Although it still tasted good, I think it would be so much better if I had used heavy cream.


Ingredients:
1 package of dry Penne pasta
1 bunch of asparagus, cut into 1.5-inch sections
2 shallots, finely minced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 links of sausage, sliced
1/2 cup pitted French black olives, cut in halves
1/2 cup of dry white wine or Vermouth
2 green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons of corn starch dissolved in 3/4 cup of water
(or 3/4 cup heavy cream)
salt & pepper

Directions:

• Cook the Penne pasta according to the package's direction.
• Two minutes before the pasta is cooked, add in the asparagus into the boiling water.
• Drain well and rinse over cold water.
• In a large pan, saute the minced shallot and garlic with olive oil until fragrant.
• Add in the sausage and cook for 2-3 minutes.
• Add in the black olive and the dry white wine and cook for another 3 minutes until the alcohol is cooked through.
• Mix the mustard and the corn starch solution (or the heavy cream) in a small bowl and add it to the pan, cook until it boils again.
• Return the pasta and asparagus to the pan and add in the chopped green onion.
• Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
  

Meatballs and Spaghetti

Since I have been nothing but Asian dishes in the past couple of weeks, I decided to be nice to Porgy and make him Meatballs and Spaghetti using Ina Garten's recipe. Instead of using a mix of ground beef, pork and veal, I used half ground pork and half breakfast sausage from Fatted Calf and added some chopped basil to the meatball mix and to the sauce.


Ingredients:

For the meatballs:
1 pound ground pork
1 pound uncooked breakfast sausage
1 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 extra-large egg, beaten
Vegetable oil
Olive oil

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 cup good red wine, such as Chianti
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For serving:
nocoupons1 1/2 pounds spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
Freshly grated Parmesan

Directions:

• Place the ground meats, bread crumbs, parsley, basil, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg, and 3/4 cup warm water in a bowl. Combine very lightly with a fork.
  
• Using your hands, lightly form the mixture into 2-inch meatballs. You will have 18-20 meatballs.
• Pour equal amounts of vegetable oil and olive oil into a large (12-inch) skillet to a depth of 1/4-inch. Heat the oil.
  
• Very carefully, in batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides over medium-low heat, turning carefully with a spatula or a fork. This should take about 10 minutes for each batch. Don't crowd the meatballs.
  
• Remove the meatballs to a plate covered with paper towels. Discard the oil but don't clean the pan.
• For the sauce, heat the olive oil in the same pan. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.
  
• Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.
• Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through.
  
• Serve hot on cooked spaghetti and top with grated Parmesan.

Spaghetti with Broccolini and Peas in Pesto Sauce

Ah... the intention of cooking healthy food can sometimes be derailed because of last minute improvisation (like adding too much cheese...). I'm not sure if this is a healthy and nutritious dish or not but I'd like to think so, specially since Porgy said that it's a very 'green' dish.

It's all started when I read this Recipe for Health article on NYTimes. I thought to myself 'Hey, that's a good idea to make simple, healthy and delicious vegetarian dish!' so I decided to make it over the weekend. Since I didn't have any parsley and edamame, I substituted spinach, arugula and dandelions for parsley and frozen shelled peas for edamame. And since I wanted to make extra 'pesto sauce' to use for pizza topping later on, I tripled the amounts of the olive oil and added extra Parmesan cheese to the sauce.


Ingredients:
4 large garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
1 packed cup of spinach
1 packed cup of arugula
1 packed cup of dandelion
1/3 cup of olive oil
1 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
1 package of dried spaghetti
1 cup of frozen peas
1 handful of Broccolini
1/2 cup of dry white wine

Directions:

• In a food processor, pulse-chop the garlic for a few seconds. Add in the spinach, arugula, dandelion and Parmesan cheese and then pulse-chop some more until finely chopped. With the machine running, drizzle in the olive oil. Taste and season with salt and pepper accordingly.
• In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the dried spaghetti pasta according to the direction in the package.
  
• About 5 minutes before the spaghetti is done cooking, add the frozen peas and Broccolini into the pot. Drain well.
• Using the same pot, cook the 'pesto sauce' with the dry white wine for a couple of minutes until it boils and then add in the spaghetti, peas and Broccolini.
  
• Toss the mixture together, add grated Parmesan cheese, salt or pepper if necessary.
  

Noodle with Red-braised Short Ribs and Asparagus

What to do when the other person wants to have a non-Asian dish but you want to have one? My solution is to make an Asian-inspired pasta dish without actually telling the person. I figured that as long as it tastes good, Porgy would not mind having spaghetti with Asian-inspired home style red-braised sauce. I used one of the recipes in Periplus' Homestyle Chinese Cooking cookbook as an inspiration for the sauce. You can make this a vegetarian dish by skipping the short ribs meat and substituting it with sliced mushroom or tofu.


Ingredients:
1 package of spaghetti pasta
2 bunches of asparagus, cut into 2-inch sections
1 cup of short ribs meats, cut into 0.5-inch cubes
3 tablespoon of ghee (unclarified butter) or olive oil
1/2 onion, sliced
8 cloves garlic, smashed with skins removed
8 slices ginger
5 green onions, cut into 2-inch sections
6 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons Shaoxing cooking wine
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red chili pepper
2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup water

Directions:

• Cook the pasta al-dente according to the package direction. Three minutes before the pasta is done, add in the cut asparagus. Drain and set aside.
• Mix all of the sauce ingredients together (soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sesame oil, sugar, salt, black pepper, chili pepper and dissolved cornstarch) in a bowl.
• Heat up the ghee in a heavy bottom pan over high heat and stir fry the short ribs meat for about 4 minutes or so until they are somewhat browned.
• Add in the onion, garlic, ginger and half of the green onion and cook for another 3 minutes.
• Add in the sauce, stir to blend, cover the pan, lower heat and braise for 5 to 6 minutes.
• Add in the cooked spaghetti, asparagus and the rest of the green onion into the pan and stir gently so they are well mixed.

Mie Jawa - Javanese Noodle

It's interesting that I have not been in the mood to blog although I have been eating really well in the past week since I'm on vacation back in Indonesia. I took food pictures left and right but somehow I just couldn't force myself to sit down and start writing about them. I felt like I needed to cook something to get motivated to blog. So this morning, I helped my Mom make Mie Jawa (Javanese-style stir fry noodle) and Tahu Campur (Tofu with Bean Sprouts and Peanut Sauce) - both are easy to made traditional Indonesian vegetarian dishes.


Ingredients:
2 tablespoon unsalted butter (or margarine)
10 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon white peppercorn, freshly ground
1/2 cabbage, cut into strips
3 green onions, roughly chopped
1 cup chopped parsley leaves
3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 eggs
1 lb fresh egg noodle
1.5 cup fried shallots

Directions:

• Heat up the butter in a wok over medium heat.
• Stir fry the garlic, salt and pepper for 1-2 minutes until fragrant and the garlic cloves turn golden.
• Add the cabbage, green onion, parsley, sweet soy sauce and oyster sauce into the wok and cover for approximately 2 minutes until the vegetables begin to cook.
• In the mean time, blanch the fresh noodle for a couple of minutes in a separate pan. If you use dry noodles, cook them according to the package minus 3 minutes or so.
• Create a well in the center of the wok and add in the eggs, breaking the yolks in the process.
• Let the eggs cook for a minute or so until they begin to harden and then stir them to make some kind of scramble eggs.
• Add in the noodle and a cup of the fried shallots, continue cooking for 3 more minutes while mixing everything together.
• Serve the noodle with the rest of the fried shallots. Enjoy!
  

Grown Up Mac and Triple Cheese

My take on Ina Garten's Grown Up Mac and Cheese. It's easy to make although it's darn hard to take a picture of since I didn't bake it in a cute gratin dishes.


Ingredients:
1 lb fusilli pasta, cook according to instruction, al dente
1.5 cup of broccoli, blanch for 1 minute
4 oz sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded
4 oz swiss cheese, shredded
2 oz blue cheese, crumbled
1 onion, roughly chopped
1/2 lb of ham, cut into small cubes
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
1.5 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup bread crumbs

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 400F and butter a 9x13 inch baking pan.
  
• Saute the onion in a small pan over low heat for 10 minutes until caramelize.
• Add in the chopped ham and cook for another 5 minutes. Set aside.
• In a large pot pan, melt the butter over low heat and add the flour. Continue cooking for 2-3 minutes stirring with a whisk.
• While whisking, add the milk and cook for a minute or 2 more until thickened and smooth.
• Remove the pan off the heat, add the Blue, Cheddar and Swiss cheese along with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
• Add in the pasta, broccoli, ham and onion and mix well.
• Pour into the prepared pan and sprinkle the bread crumb on top.
• Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the sauce is bubbly and the pasta is browned on top.
  

Porgy's Caprese Pasta Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

On an extremely rare occasion and if the stars and moon are aligned, Porgy will actually make dinner. After watching Mostly Martha, a German romantic comedy all about food, he was craving pasta and decided to make Caprese Pasta Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette -- recipe from the Cooking Photographer. It looks simple enough but it took him forever since he barely knows how to cut parsley. However, it turned out refreshing and perfect for summer. Good job Porgy!


Ingredients:
Lemon Vinaigrette
2 teaspoons finely grated lemons zest
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
¼ cup lightly packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
2 garlic cloves, chopped
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more if needed to wet pasta

Pasta
1 pound of fusilli pasta
1 pound diced ripe tomatoes
16 ounce tub fresh mozzarella pearls, drained
Lemon vinaigrette
Lots of fresh basil, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Blend the lemon zest and juice, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper in a blender.
• With the machine running gradually blend in the oil.
• Season the vinaigrette to taste with more salt and pepper.
• Cook the pasta according to the package direction, al dente, drain and rinse with cold water.
  
• Move the pasta to a large serving bowl and toss together with the rest of the ingredients.
• Top with grated pecorino cheese.

Penne Pasta with Chorizo in Tomato Sauce

Tonight, Porgy made a simple and delicious dish of Penne Pasta with Chorizo in Tomato Sauce for me. It was a special treat because he usually just drinks wine (or any other alcoholic drinks) while watching me cook. Maybe I can persuade him to cook for me more often? We'll see...


Ingredients:
1 Package of Penne Pasta
Uncooked chorizo (take out from the casing)
Half onion, chopped
3 Garlic, finelly chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped Rosemary
1 can of Whole Tomatoes, cut into smaller pieces
1/2 teaspoon Cumin
1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon Red pepper flakes
1/4 cup of Vodka (or any dry alcohol)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup chopped Parsley
Pecorino cheese, grated
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

• Cook the penne pasta according to its instruction. I like to substract a couple of minutes from the cooking time since I will cook the pasta again with the sauce later on.
• In a large pan, cook the Chorizo over a medium high heat with the olive oil.
  
• When it starts getting browned, add in the onion, garlic and rosemary. Cook for 5 minutes or so until the onion softened.
• Add in the tomatoes along with the juice, cumin, nutmeg, red pepper flakes, sugar and the vodka. Lower the heat to low and simmer uncovered for 10 to 15 minutes until the liquid reduced by half.
• Add the pasta back into the pan along with the chopped parsley and grated Pecorino cheese and mix carefully.
• Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
• Serve with some more grated Pecorino cheese on top.
  

Early Summer Pasta

Here is a simple and delicious pasta utilizing late spring and early summer vegetables - Pasta with Bacon, Corn and Peas


Ingredients:
Fresh pasta
Fresh peas
Kernels of 1 ear of corn
4 bacon - chopped to bite sizes and cooked
2 garlic cloves - chopped
2 teaspoon chili flakes
2 sprigs of fresh thyme - chopped
1 sprig of rosemary - chopped
1 cup of white wine
2 tablespoon butter

Directions:

• Chop garlic with thyme and rosemary
• Using 1 tablespoon of bacon fat in the same heavy bottomed pan used to cook the bacon, cook the garlic, thyme, rosemary and chili flakes over medium heat for 1-2 minutes until fragrant
• Glaze the pan with the white wine, scrapping the bottom of the pan
• Lower the heat, add in the peas and the corn and cook for 5 minutes
• In the mean time, cook the fresh pasta and drain well (usually it takes about 3-4 minutes)
• Add butter into the sauce and mix well
• Add in the pasta into the sauce mixture and toss well so that pasta is coated with the sauce
• Serve the pasta with bacon bits on top

2009 Memorial Day Weekend Part 1

I spent this past Saturday cooking a Spring-influenced menu of Butternut Squash and Mascarpone Ravioli and Veal and Pork Sausage Sage Ravioli with MoFo Duo, ShunBun and Craig. We followed the recipes almost to the T - except that we did not use any morel mushrooms in the sausage ravioli and we used brown butter sage sauce on both raviolis. It was the first time I ever made pasta or raviolis from scratch. Although it took me awhile to get used to it (and having flour everywhere), I think the result was definitely worth our the efforts. It was a fun and relaxing day working together with close friends making a delicious dinner.

Risotto with Pancetta, Peas and Red Onion

Using the leftover ingredients (peas, pancetta and chicken stock) from the Pasta dish, I decided to make Risotto with Pancetta, Peas and Red Onion.


Ingredients:
1 red onion - half and sliced thinly
1/2 cup of roughly chopped pancetta
2 cups of peas
2 cups of Arborio rice
1/2 cup of dry white wine (I used Vermouth)
6 cups of chicken stock
1 teaspoon of saffron
1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt & pepper

Directions:

• In a large pot (or a dutch oven), cook the pancetta over medium heat for 8-10 minutes until they crisp
• Take out the pancetta and put over paper towel
• Using 2 tablespoon of the oil from the pancetta, sautee the sliced onion for 5 minutes
• Add in the Arborio rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it's glossy and coated with oil for about 3 minutes
• Add the saffron along with a little salt and pepper, then the Vermouth and stir until the liquid bubble away
• Using a ladle, add the chicken stock into the pan half a cup at a time, stir after each addition and when the stock is just about gone, add more
• After about 15 minutes or so, add in the peas into the rice mixture
• Continue cooking the rice using the chicken stock for another 5 minutes
• Taste the rice to see if it's done - it should be tender but with a bit of crunch in the middle
• Adjust the seasoning and add in the grated parmesan cheese and pancetta crisps

Pasta with Pancetta, Peas and Porcini

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of roughly chopped pancetta
10 porcini mushroom - sliced length-wise
1 shallots - finely diced
2 cups of fresh pea
fresh egg pasta
parmesan reggiano
salt & pepper

Directions:

• In a large pot, boil enough water for the pasta
• In a large sautee pan, cook the pancetta over medium heat for 8-10 minutes until they crisp
• Take out the pancetta and put over paper towel
• Using 1-2 tablespoon of the oil from the pancetta, sautee the shallots for 3 minutes
• Add in the peas and mushroom and cook for another 5 minutes
• In the meantime, cook the pasta (since they are fresh, they should cook in a minute or so)
• Add the cooked pasta into the sautee pan along with 1/2 cup of the pasta water
• Season with salt and pepper
• Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese

The next day, I ate the left over pasta as a noodle soup by adding the chicken broth (saved from when I made Hainanese Chicken Rice)

Bar Bambino and Bi-Rite Creamery

Tonight, I went to Bar Bambino in the Mission District for dinner with Danny. We started with a mezzo (500 mL) of 2007 Sassotondo Rosso (Ciliegiolo, Alicante), a Prosciutto Plate from La Quercia Farms served with house made fruit mostarda (mustard-glazed apple chutney) and a plate of Arancinette - small arancinis with porcini and fontina.


Gnocchi alla Primavera - classic potato gnocchi paired with spring garlic, peas, pancetta, EVOO and parmigiano reggiano


Slow-Roasted Half-Duck with escarole and green olives (no picture here because it was too dark). This was my least favorite dish of the night because the duck was dry and the escarole was cold. Not sure what happened in the kitchen because the other dishes were great. It was a bad ending of otherwise a nice dinner.

For desserts, we decided to have ice creams at Bi-Rite Creamery. Danny had the Cinnamon Snickerdoodle and I had the Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon ice cream.


On the way home, I saw Marian and Vivian Brown, The San Francisco Twins, so I chatted with them for awhile and took a picture of them. They're so fabulous!

Fideos with Langoustine and Broccoli Flower in Safron Cream Sauce

Today, I made Fideos with langoustine and broccoli flower in saffron cream sauce. It was my take on Ilan Hall's recipe in Bravo TV's Top Chef season 2.


Here is the recipe courtesy of Bravo TV with my changes...

Ingredients:
1 pound fideos (or capellini pasta)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half-and-half
2 teaspoons saffron
2 cups broccoli flower florets
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
8-10 cloves garlic, peeled
1 pound langoustine
1/2 cup dry sherry
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Grated parmesan cheese
Chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Directions:

• Heat oven to 375F.
• If using capellini, break them into 3-inch pieces. Arrange fideo (or capellini pieces) in an even layer on top of a silicone pat on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast in oven until golden brown (approximately 10 minutes). Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
• Heat broiler in oven.
• In a small saucepan, combine heavy cream, half-and-half, saffron and 1 teaspoon salt. Whisk to dissolve saffron. Bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat, stir in broccoli florets and set aside.
• In a medium straight-sided skillet, heat olive oil and garlic over low heat until garlic begins to soften. Add langoustine, sherry and fideos to the skillet. Season with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Increase heat to medium and cover skillet. Cook about 4 minutes and remove from heat.
• Put langoustine and pasta mixture in an ovenproof dish, filling about half full. Top with broccoli florets and cream mixture.
• Transfer the dish to oven and broil for about 10 minutes until golden brown.
• Grate some parmesan cheese on top of the dish.
  
• Garnish with chopped parsley and serve warm.