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.

Thought For Food - Hands On

Do you like to play with your food or ever wonder how you would cook if the evil kitchen elves place things at the bottom of the drawer and hide all your utensils? Well, if you do, this event does just that. Recently our friend Lisa at Autofuss, an amazing production studio here in SF, invited us to attend a food/cooking experience founded by her office called Thought For Food - Hands On.

We cooked a three-course meal without using any utensils, just our hands. No measuring spoons/cups, no forks/spoons/knives, no rolling pin, no whisk – just our two hands, the ingredients, a set of instructions, a couple of bowls, pot of boiling water and diagrams on how to measure ingredients with just your hands. Not to mention the endless glasses of wine.


The menu:

• Italian wine
• Traditional Caesar salad
• Homemade pasta with pesto sauce
• Tiramisu

It was a little weird at first using just your hands to scoop up the mascarpone cheese for the tiramisu and rolling out pasta dough with a carrot, but it brought me back to my childhood playing with playdough. As you can see from the pictures below, Porgy and I were not very successful in creating our pasta dish. Some couples were able to rollout their dough thin enough to make pasta strips and ours looked more like potato chips. Although the pasta texture was a bit chewy, the flavor was fantastic.


All in all, it was a fun and educational evening for us – catching up with old friends, doing some experimental cooking, getting our hands really messy and most importantly, I learned that I am totally dependent on my cooking utensils. If you’re interested in checking out Autofuss' next event, Hunger Tool, go to their site for more information.

Osso Buco

It's going to snow in San Francisco... it's going to snow in San Francisco... NOT! After a non-stop hoopla in the news in the past week, snow did not arrive in San Francisco this weekend. Although it was cold, it was sunny all weekend long and it reminded me of the days when Arthur just laid out on the balcony or in front of the window enjoying the sun. My beautiful dog Arthur passed away 2 weeks ago because of lymphoma cancer, he came to my life, turned it up side down for good and I missed him dearly.

I made this Simply Recipes' Osso Buco in expectation that it would be an overcast wet and cold weekend and in memory of Arthur because I know that he would enjoy gnawing the bone marrow out of the shanks. I couldn't find any veal shanks so I used beef shanks instead which means I had to cook it for another hour to get it tender. I served this delicious goodness on top of steamed white rice, sprinkle with gremolata and a side of Stir-fried Yu Choi and Shiitake Mushroom.


Ingredients:
1/4 pound pancetta, diced 1/4 inch cubes (do not substitute bacon)
2-1/2 to 3 pounds veal shanks (4 to 6 pieces 2-3 inches thick)
1/2 cup diced carrot (1/4 inch cubes)
1/2 cup diced celery (1/4 inch cubes)
1 medium onion, diced 1/4 inch pieces
2 tablespoons (about 4 cloves) chopped garlic
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 cup dry white wine
1-2 cups chicken or veal stock
flour for dusting the meat before browning
salt and pepper

Gremolata:
2 tablespoons minced flat (Italian) parsley
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Heat a dutch oven on the stove top over medium heat for about five minutes. Add pancetta to pan, cook, stirring occasionally. When the pancetta is crispy and most of the fat has rendered (about 5 minutes of cooking), remove the pancetta to a plate covered with some paper towel and set aside. If necessary, drain off all but two tablespoons of the fat from the pan.
• Season the veal shank well with salt and pepper. Dredge the veal shanks through some flour, shake off any excess, and add the meat to the hot fat in the pan. Increase the heat to medium high and cook the meat on each side until well browned (about 5 minutes per side). Remove the shanks to a plate, set aside.
• Add the onions, carrots, and celery to the dutch oven. Cook the onion mixture, stirring frequently, until the onions are translucent (about five minutes) and toss in the garlic and thyme. Continue cooking until the vegetables just begin to brown (about 10 minutes).
• Add the shanks and the pancetta back to the pan. Pour in the wine, and then add enough stock to come a little more than half way up the side of the shanks. Bring to a simmer. Cover the pan and put it in the oven to cook until the meat is tender, about 2-2.5 hours.
• Combine the gremolata ingredients, place in a separate small serving dish.

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.

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.

Italian Sausage, Fennel and Vegetable Pesto Pizza

This is my first official pizza entry as Pissaladiere is technically not a pizza. It is also an easy one to make because I have already had most of the ingredients ready since they're similar to the ones in the Spaghetti with Broccolini and Peas in Pesto Sauce that I made over the weekend. I added some Italian sausage and fennel slices to give additional flavor to it.

The good thing about making a pizza is that you can add almost anything you want or have in the fridge. I don't have any pizza stone so I used a baking sheet to bake the pizza on and good thing it turned out well.


Ingredients:
1 pizza dough (I used plain pizza dough from Trader's Joe)
2 links of sweet Italian sausage
1 fennel, cored and sliced
2 green garlic, one sliced to 2" pieces and the other roughly chopped
a few leaves each of spinach, arugula and dandelions
a handful of Broccolini
1 cup of shredded Mozzarella cheese
pesto sauce

Directions:

• Pre-heat up the oven to 450 degree.
• Take the sausages out of the link, break out of bite-size pieces.
• Cook the sausage pieces with a little bit of olive oil for 5 minutes over medium heat until they are almost cooked. Add in the sliced fennel and chopped green garlic and cook for another 4 minutes until the fennel slices are starting to soften up. Set aside.
• Work on the pizza dough according to the package direction (rest in a room temperature for 20 minutes, stretch by hand or using a rolling pin over a lightly floured surface to 12" diameter circle and move onto a lightly oiled baking pan or pizza stone if you have one).
• Top the pizza with about 1/4 cup of the pesto sauce, then with the vegetables, sliced green garlic, sausage bits and mozzarella cheese.
• Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and the bottom of the pizza is golden brown.
  

Lasagna

I cooked this delicious meaty and cheesy lasagna over the weekend. It was a perfect food for a rainy & cold San Francisco weather as the smell of the tomato sauce and the baked cheese totally warmed up my apartment. The original recipe that I got from my coworker (thank you, AMV!) required three pounds of ground meat but I decided to cut it in half since I added other ingredients like the ricotta cheese and extra vegetables into it. I also used the lasagna recipes at Closet Cooking and Simpy Recipes for inspiration.


Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
10 cloves of garlic, minced
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 lb each of ground beef, ground pork and sweet Italian sausage
1 lb of Crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 cans of 28oz San Marzano tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 package of Barilla lasagna noodles
1/2 lb of grated Mozarella cheese
1 15 oz Ricotta cheese
2 cups of grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1 teaspoon dry oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt, sugar & pepper to taste

Directions:

• Saute the onion in olive oil in a deep sauce pan over a medium heat until browned, then add carrot, green bell pepper, garlic and the red chili pepper flakes and cook for another 10 minutes until all vegetables are soft. Set aside.
• In the same pan, add another tablespoon of olive oil and saute the ground meat over medium high heat for 5 minutes or so until totally cooked. Set aside and drain off any excess oil from the meats.
  
• Saute the sliced mushroom in the same pan with a sprinkle of garlic until cooked and then set aside.
• For the Sauce: Return 3/4 of the vegetable mixture, 1/4 of the meat and 3/4 of the mushroom into the same pan and add the two cans of chopped tomatoes, dry oregano, cumin, cinnamon and half garlic powder. Add 1/4 cup of red wine and simmer the sauce for 60 to 90 minutes until it thickens. Add seasoning accordingly.
• For the Meat Filling: In a large bowl, mix the rest of the vegetable mixture, meat, mushroom and seasoning with half of the grated Mozarella cheese. The cheese will melt and become stringy.
• For Cheese Mixture: Mix the Ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese and the two eggs in a bowl
  

Assembling the Lasagna:

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• If you are using Barilla lasagna noodles, you do not have to cook the pasta first. If not, cook the pasta according to the direction in the box.
• Spread 1 cup of the tomato sauce over the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.
• Place 4 lasagna noodles on top, overlapping a little one top of the other.
• Place 1/2 of the Ricotta cheese mixture on top and layer with 1/2 of the meat filling and 1/3 of the tomato sauce.
• Add another layer of lasagna noodles on top and then repeat with the rest of the Ricotta cheese mixture and meat filling and another 1/3 of the tomato sauce.
• Add another layer of lasagna noodles on top and top everything with the rest of the tomato sauce.
• Cover (tent) the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 50 minutes.
• Take off the aluminum foil and add the remaining Mozarella cheese on top.
• Return to oven uncovered for 10 minutes until the cheeses on top are melted and the edges are slightly browned.
• Cool for 5 minutes before cutting.
• If you have leftover meat mixture or sauce, you can always freeze and use them for pasta sauce in the future.
  

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.

Dinner at SPQR

Porgy and I had an early dinner at SPQR on Fillmore Street before watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last Wednesday. I had been wanting to try out SPQR in the past couple of years but I was always deterred by the long line. Fortunately, since we went there early enough, there was no line. I had 3 small Antipasti plates ($8 each, or $21 for three) with a glass of Pinot Noir (La Crotta di Vegrenon, Pinot noir, Valle d'asosta 2007) and Porgy that the Antipasti Grande with a glass of white Pecorino (Frentana 'Terre Valse' Pecorino, Abruzzo 2007).


Wild arugula, plums, red onion, fried bread and ricotta salata - $8


Beef tongue with horseradish crema - $8


Local calamari with salt roasted potatoes, salsa verde, celery and olive - $8


Rabbit sausage sandwich with carrots, golden raisins and pancetta - $14


Riso budino with plum confittura and pistachio - $7.5

Gialina Pizzeria

Today, I went to Gialina Pizzeria in the Glen Park district with Mo-Fo. I read about this neighborhood pizza place several times in various sites and most recently on Bauer's blog today. It was not our first choice to go there today because we were planning to have an Omakase meal at Yume in Alameda - unfortunately, it was closed for several days because the chef was sick. We arrived at Gialina around 6pm and had to wait for about 10 minutes for our table. It was a little bit surprising to me that there were quite a few small children in the restaurant and, of course, one of them sat next to me.

We decided to splurge so each of us pick an appetizer, a pizza and a dessert and we shared a bottle of wine. The food was generally good - straight forward and tasty. The only dish that perplexed us was the Strawberry Shortcake with Whipped Cream because the shortcake tasted like a savory biscuit. However, overall, we enjoyed our dinner and we were totally stuffed and satisfied at the end of our meal.



Soft Polenta with Goat Cheese, Spicy Chilies & Basil


Little Meatballs with Tomato Sauce & Aged Provolone


Atomica Pizza - Tomato, Mushrooms, Mozzarella, Spicy Chilies & Red Onions


Broccoli Rabe Pizza with Sweet Italian Sausage & Val d'Aosta Fontina


Bi Rite Creamery Ice Cream: Mint Chocolate Chips, Honey Lavender and Cherry Almonds


Strawberry Shortcake (Biscuit?) with Whipped Cream

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.

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!