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Easy Weeknight Meals

Cooking Your Own Fast Food; Pizza with Fresh Sausage, Mushrooms and Olives

April 26, 2010
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In his book Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, Michael Pollan says “Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.” His theory is if you have to make the french fries yourself, you are less likely to eat them as often as you would if you got them from the drive-thru window.

This rule resonates with me on many levels. People tend to say they “don’t have time to cook.” I think that may be true sometimes, but nowhere near as often as people use it as an excuse to eat poorly. With a little preparation and planning, so many healthy meals can be cooked and on the table in less than a half an hour. For example, this pizza can be made in the time it takes to have one delivered. Pizza dough can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator. Some…

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Gemelli with Butternut Squash and Bacon and Review of “Thirty Minute Pasta” by Giuliano Hazan

January 5, 2010

Pasta with Butternut Squash and Bacon

Giuliano Hazan is a member of Italian culinary royalty. His mother, Marcella Hazan, is credited with bringing authentic Italian cooking to the United States. In fact, even though I grew up eating my grandmother’s Sicilian-American food, Marcella’s cookbook, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, was one of the first Italian cookbooks I owned which talked about Italian food beyond tomato sauce. Giuliano Hazan has certainly taken to the “family business”; he is well-respected regardless of name, writing several cookbooks of his own, appearing on TV, winning awards, and running a cooking school for part of every year in Verona Italy. 

His latest book, Giuliano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes is filled with simple, elegant, and appealing recipes meant to be accessible to busy cooks. Most can be assembled in the time it takes to boil water and cook the pasta.
I like his approach to recipes which is relaxed…

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Sometimes Dinner Really Is Just This Simple

October 31, 2009

cheeseplattersm

I think the title and the photo speaks for itself, no?

Salami, cheese (soft goat cheese, cave aged Gruyere and a sharp white cheddar), olives, mom’s home smoked salmon and some marinated artichokes. Add to that a loaf of freshly baked bread (buy it or make it yourself) and a good bottle of wine and you have a meal ready in 5 minutes. I love to eat this way.

What do you do make when you don’t feel like cooking?

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How to Make Fresh Ricotta Cheese plus an Easy Pasta Recipe

October 6, 2009
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I really hate to waste food. It’s definitely a result of my upbringing. My grandparents were children of the depression and never threw anything away. Add to that, being fairly poor as a small child, and thriftiness was indoctrinated from a very young age.
So when I had 6 cups of whole milk left over from making the chocolate peanut butter ice cream, I was in a quandary as to what to do with it. We don’t normally drink whole milk (though I’m sure my husband would, happily) and I couldn’t let it go bad. I couldn’t make any more ice cream because frankly, I just don’t exercise enough to justify it. So what to make? Cheese was my final answer.

In addition, I don’t like to have to go shopping just to be able to make something (see my post on making a lemon blueberry tart). What…

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Easy Tuesday Dinner; Pasta with Pancetta, Arugula and Pecorino

September 22, 2009

I finally got my mother to part with the remainder of the pancetta we made. Of course, I had to promise to make her dinner in return for her parting with the divine piece of pork.

Next month we’re going to Rome for a week . So, in honor of our upcoming trip, here’s my best attempt at a recreation of my favorite pasta of the trip, trofe e cicoria e guanciale. Technically, guanciale is bacon made from a pig’s cheek, but pancetta is close enough.

This pasta is a great addition to the Easy Tuesday Dinner series because it’s done in the time it takes to cook the pasta (about 10 minutes). It’s even faster if you buy your pancetta diced and cheese already shaved/grated.

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Grilled Eggplant and Zucchini Parmesan

August 24, 2009

eggplantparm1

My very first job in a restaurant kitchen was as the pastry chef for a small mom-and-pop Italian restaurant. How I got that job with no experience is a story for another day. But after working there for about 6 months, I moved to working on the hot line part time. One of my responsibilities was to make the batches of eggplant parmesan and lasagna. I loathed doing the eggplant because this meant I had to stand over a scalding rondo pan of hot oil and fry rounds of eggplant for what felt like days.
Later, when I was a head chef in another resaurant and would somehow end up with an extra case of eggplant, I never forgot how much I hated all that frying and came up with a much healthier version of the dish, grilling the eggplant instead.
I haven’t made this for over a decade, but lately it’s been on my mind,…

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