Tartufo da Roma

I recently went to Rome for a meeting for a few days. I had never been to Italy before and have long had a love affair with the thought of Rome, so I was pretty excited. I knew I wouldn't have much time to see sights until the end of the trip, because I was working non stop. I was, of course, most looking forward to stuffing my face and gaining at least 5 pounds from eating pasta every meal, every day. Unfortunately, I had a terrible stomach ache most of the time that I was there (I'll spare you the details), and barely had an appetite, and the jet lag didn't help. Finally on the last night, I wasn't exactly feeling better, but I was determined to enjoy myself a little bit. I think my boss felt bad for me, so she took me around to some of the sights and we did extremely touristy things, like eat pasta in front of the Pantheon, which I could barely stomach, but it was delicious... just spaghetti, pecorino romano and a lot of black pepper.

Then she took me to get this:


Tartufo... Suddenly I had an appetite. This was apparently a very chocolately version, but it was essentially, a frozen cherry covered in rich chocolate gelato, covered in some sort of pure chocolate ganache rolled in crushed pieces of dark chocolate, then frozen and topped with whipped cream and a little cookie straw.

It sounds like too much, because it was too much, but I ate basically all of it. I can't wait to go back to Italy and eat everything else!

Bacon and Blue Cheese Mac n' Cheese

So, I promise I'm going to start taking pictures of the finished products, but when they are ready we're just too excited to dig in to stop for a Kodak moment!

Anyway, Dolce loves bacon above all other things. One time I scraped bacon fat into the trash can and he stood at the trashcan crying and stamping his feet for half an hour hoping I'd give him access to the wonderful bacon fat. This recipe was incredible, and definitely Dolce approved. Bacon goes great with everything, and especially well with blue cheese. This is really just a regular mac n cheese with a hint of tangy blue cheese and smokey bacon in every bite.

Pasta:
1 lb macaroni or shells
1 lb of extra sharp cheddar cheese (I like Cabot).
2 cups whole milk
2 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
salt and pepper to taste
4 or more slices of bacon
half cup or more crumbled gorgonzola or other blue cheese

bread crumb topping:
1/3 cup of parmesan
2/3 cup of bread crumbs
2 tsp cracked black pepper
2 tsp salt


Preheat oven to 400*F. Grate all of the cheddar and set aside (use a food processor to save your biceps :). Pour milk and let come to room temperature (or microwave for 30 seconds). Cook the bacon, crumble when cool and set aside. While making cheese sauce. boil a large pot of water with a tablespoon of salt and cook pasta until just slightly tender.

In a large sauce pan melt butter and whisk in flour to make a roux, let bubble until golden, don't brown. Whisk in milk until half a cup at a time, letting the mixture smooth and thicken with each addition. The final addition may not get thick, so whisk until bubbly and add in cheese a handful or two at a time melting before each new addition. Stir in salt and pepper to taste (I like a lot of black pepper). Pour mixture over cooked noodles and combine, add bacon and blue cheese until just combined and pour into a 9x9 casserole or a deep casserole bowl. You may sprinkle more blue cheese on top at this point. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture on top and bake at 400F for 20 to 30 minutes or until bubbling and golden brown on top. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Variation:
For regular mac and cheese, I would omit the bacon and blue cheese and add two tsp of cayenne to the cheese sauce.

Fall is upon us! Butternut Squash Soup

In the last month, I have been traveling a lot so trips to the farmer's market have been centered around a couple of items to cook on Sunday or to snack on, but this past weekend we were finally able to think about meals! We've seen the gradual transition to fall produce and finally the weather is going along with it.

I set out with corn chowder on the brain, but sadly corn season is gone! The winter squash were so tempting I decided to make a hearty soup (a soup I make in in many variations all fall and winter). You can really go two ways with this particular variation, add nutmeg for something more earthy or leave out the nutmeg and serve with sour cream and chives. Leave out the butter and the cream and it is vegan and just as delicious.

Leland was very skeptical that we could eat "all that soup", so we bought containers for freezing the remainder (after we had set aside some extra for a weekday lunch). I came home last night to him defrosting the bit we had frozen so he could eat it again for dinner two days later. It is so good and so simple. Next time, I'll have to make a double batch so we can keep some frozen!

The nutmeg version is below:

Serves 6 main courses or 8 to 10 appetizers

1 butternut squash
1 acorn squash
(Any two squash would work, but I love this combination)
1 medium onion
1 big carrot, or a couple of thin ones
2 celery stalks
1 sweet potato
2 tbs butter
2 tbs olive oil
1 quart vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme
salt, pepper to taste
nutmeg to taste
1/2 to 1 cup of heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400*F. Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds and place the squash cut side down on a baking sheet (lined with tin foil to save a big mess later), cut a few slits through the skin of the squash. Bake for about 45 min at 400F or until a knife inserts easily and squash is tender. Let cool completely and then scoop out the roasted squash and set aside. You can do this step a day or few hours ahead of time. If you do this ahead of time, the actual soup takes less than half an hour to put together in the evening.

In a large pot or dutch oven, saute the onion, carrots and celery in the butter and oil until soft and starting to brown (at least 10 min), the browner the more the flavor! In the meantime, wash, peel and cube the sweet potato.

Deglaze the onion mixture with all of the stock; add the bay leaves and thyme and some of the salt, pepper and nutmeg; add the sweet potato and the roasted squash,and add enough water to just cover the potatoes and bring to a boil. Boil until sweet potatoes are tender but not mushy (fork inserts easily) 10 to 15 minutes, adding more water along the way if necessary to cover the veggies. When the sweet potatoes are done, turn off the heat, remove bay leaves and thyme.

Use an immersion blender or ladle the soup into a blender, add 1/2 to 1 cup of cream and blend to a fine puree. I generally add more water at this point to thin the soup to the desired consistency. Butternut squash soup can be thin, but the addition of the sweet potato makes it thick and hearty, so thinning a little helps at this point because you're breaking up all that sweet potato.

Return to the heat and bring back to a bubbly simmer, and serve. Garnish with coarse salt, black pepper and nutmeg.

Peach Gelato

Leland's dad sent us Making Artisan Gelato when he found out we got an ice cream maker attachment for my shiny red kitchen aid mixer. My granddaddy used to make peach ice cream when I was younger and it was delicious. This was better with a peach puree incorporated into the ice cream and not just chunks of peaches in with vanilla ice cream.

I'm not going to include the recipe, because we followed the peach gelato recipe exactly. All I can say is if you don't have an ice cream maker, get one and use it and eat a lot of homemade ice cream and get fat, because it is so much better than anything you can get in a store or even an ice cream shop.

Mustard-Garlic Glazed Pork Chops

Okay, so we had an incredible busy cooking weekend and I'm not sure where to start so I'll go in somewhat chronological order.

We planned to make a fancy dinner at home on Saturday, so we went to the 14th & U Street Farmer's Market in the morning in search of lamb chops. There was no lamb, and I've never made lamb, so I must say I was slightly relieved that we picked up a couple of pork chops from a local vendor instead. We picked up some Swiss chard, garlic and goat cheese to combine as a side and some white potatoes for mashed potatoes.

We also got some bacon and ciabatta (and the goat cheese) that we used to make breakfast when we got home with some scrambled eggs. Simple and delicious. AND we got peaches for a peach gelato (in post above) we took to a friend's birthday on Sunday.

The pork chops turned out wonderfully. I wouldn't change a thing!

Leland made a brine with water, sugar, and salt that we let it sit in for like 4 hours. Then he rubbed them with a grainy dijon mustard, garlic, salt and pepper paste. We seared them in a pan on high heat for a couple of minutes on each side, until a crust formed and then transferred them to a preheated baking sheet in a 450* oven to finish for like 6 minutes. It started to smell like burning so we ran over to save them, but it was fine and they were perfect to come out! We tented them with foil and let them sit for another 5 minutes or so. We used the pork chops recipe from the New Best Recipes cookbook, and they suggested an internal temp of 145, but our thermometer wasn't working and it still turned out fine.

They were juicy and delicious ;). and I love pork.

Capellini with Cherry Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

We had Ari and Val over for dinner last night and I made some changes to a dish that I've made a lot in the past. I usually do angel hair with some sauteed cherry tomatoes/shallot/ garlic and just before serving stir in fresh basil and mozz, BUT, the mozzarella doesn't really melt well, so you end up with lumps of it (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). The substitution of the mozz with goat cheese made this a completely different dish and really creamy and rich. I cooked the herbs in with the sauce instead of adding them fresh at the end making the flavors deeper.

My mom does something similar, but she slow roasts the cherry tomatoes in the oven at low temp overnight or all day, and it is totally delicious.

Before the pasta we had a simple salad with mixed baby greens, grapes (sliced in half), pistachios and shaved shallot with my house dressing!

This sauce isn't complicated, you just need time to let the sauce cook down. I'm not very good at measuring things out, so all of the amounts below are approximate. If you have the right flavors, it doesn't really matter if the ratios are right on. Last night I thought there should have been more sauce/ tomatoes for the amount of pasta, but everyone thought it was delicious. Anyway, this isn't exactly what I did with the pasta last night, but is what I will do next time!


Serves 4

a generous 1/2 lb of capellini
1 lb of cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
one small red onion or a shallot
3 cloves garlic or more to taste
a few glugs of olive oil, to cover the bottom of the pan
1/2 cup veg broth
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup of fresh goat cheese
2 sprigs thyme,
1 sprig oregano
a handful of fresh basil
salt and pepper
fresh grated parm, for garnish

So, in a deep saute pan dice the red onion and saute in the olive oil until tender and just starting to brown, add the fresh herbs and the garlic to the oil until fragrant, less than a minute. Deglaze the pan with the wine, add the broth and bring everything to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low and let cook down for about 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Then add the cherry tomatoes and let simmer for another 15 minutes. After 10 minutes use a fork to squish all of the tomatoes so the seeds and juices burst out, and then cook for the remaining 5 minutes or longer if needed. Pull out any woody pieces from the herbs and put on a low simmer. You don't need to stir this too often while it is cooking.

While you're waiting for the sauce to cook down bring your pasta water and a couple teaspoons of salt to a boil. Capellini only needs about 3 minutes if it is dry and even less if it is fresh, so don't add the pasta until your sauce is pretty ready to go.

Drain the pasta and add directly to the sauce, crumble goat cheese over the top and fresh basil, if desired, and toss very lightly, so that the sauce covers all of the pasta, but there are still some chunks of goat cheese. Serve and top with a light sprinkling of parm.

Red Pepper Risotto a la Riggs Place

Leland and I moved into a new apartment over the weekend (big step), and last night we broke in the kitchen! We made a red pepper risotto and it was pretty tasty, but definitely could use improvement. We actually found that the addition of the parmesan at the end made the biggest difference.

1 red bell pepper diced
1/2 a large red onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
~3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 cups dry arborio rice
~1 cup dry white wine (we used a Chardonnay)
4+ cups of vegetable stock and water
1+ cup of parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste... we added a lot of black pepper and not too much salt because the broth and parm are salty

The major change I would make would be to add one more entire red bell pepper... it wasn't quite as "peppery" as it has been when I have made this before.

So, in a med/ large sauce pan heat the oil, saute the pepper and onion in the olive oil until just soft about 10 min on medium heat.

Meanwhile in a small sauce pan heat about the vegetable broth and water on med high heat. It doesn't need to boil.

To the pepper and onion, add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add more oil if needed (there should be enough to coat the rice), stir in the rice and coat it in the oil and heat through for 30 seconds to a minute. Stir in a cup or more of white wine, enough to cover the rice and then some. Stir until all of the wine is absorbed, then add two ladles of the heated broth, stir frequently until absorbed and add two more ladles (now would be a good time to salt and pepper). Repeat the ladling process until the rice will not absorb more liquid and it is just tender, you don't want mushy risotto. This will take about half an hour, so get started on the rest of the wine! When the rice is done, turn off the heat and stir in the parmesan and serve (with another sprinkle of parm of course).

This was pretty delicious, but like I said not "red peppery" enough so I would use 2 red bell peppers instead, but I think it could also benefit from a dash of red pepper flakes.

Yum :).

Granville Moore's

My dad and brother came to DC for a visit and last night we took them to Granville Moore's. My dad loves mussels and my brother, a brewer (www.thecovey.com), loves belgian beer, so we figured it would be a home run.

After the crabby cabbie scoffed at our choice of restaurant, saying "it was a really bad part of town", we got to H St and got a table with no problem just before 7:00. The restaurant is small and was soon crowded, overflowing with people and bad music. But, we weren't waiting long before we had our first round of beers. They have over 60 Belgian beers by the bottle, and were only out of four! (three of which we tried to order). Leland and Jamie were more creative with their beer choices, but I had a pale ale that I thought was delicious, hoppy and thick, Popperings Hommel.

We had been there once before, and I was most excited about the dipping sauces for the frites. We had chipotle mayo, garlic ranch (everyone's favorite), horseradish and truffle aioli. My bro got the fish of the day and was unimpressed. For the second time I got the Moules Fromage Bleu, as did my dad. It was definitely a good choice. The bleu cheese melts a little to make the wine sauce creamy, and shallots and bacon are a welcome addition to any meal! I was disappointed when I realized my dad's bowl was swimming in bacon and I had only gotten a few pieces. The moules were really fat and delicious and I filled up quickly, so I let my brother finishe them off. Leland had the Moules Champignon and loved them. They were really tasty and simple, but the heavy cream in the sauce made it a little too... heavy for me. We got more beers, finished off the fries and went home happy with no room for dessert.

Taste of the Nation

On April 12, we went to Taste of the Nation, in DC at the National Building Museum - an awesome venue and a much better choice than the previous year, which got a little over crowded. Our plan of attack was to get a beverage and start going down the rows of tables, so we could try as many dishes as possible. Once Leland found the beer we were good to go. We started with a sausage and pepper on a bun that was delicious, but made us realize we should split as much as possible so we could eat as many dishes as possible :). Next was a braized beef slider... YUM. And while the first few dishes were delicious they weren't good enough that I remembered the name of the restaurant.

I had a really awful puff pastry with some mushy veggies and an anchovy, got another glass of wine (also bad) and got back to it.

Last year there were maybe half a dozen alcohol vendors... This year the entire perimeter of the place was lined with mixologists, local vineyards, wine bars, etc., including a Courvoisier table. You could sip the cognac and try a bite of filet and a shrimp that had been marinated in it and then grilled... and wow, the beef was so tender and delicious and I may attempt to recreate it if there is ever a bottle floating around, but as for sipping... not my thing.

To be brief, the highlights were basically two: Vidalia , served up a piece of filet with leeks, something creamy and a garlic chip on top. So simple, but so delicious... the whole thing just melted in your mouth. It was also the only small bite of meat I ate at TOTN that was actually served at the temperature it is meant to be eaten. Tasting what Brasserie Beck served up made us wonder why we still haven't eaten there. It was a lamb stew with lots of cumin, tasted almost like a chili and topped with a potato puree. Heaven. I will eat a full meal there soon.

We went home incapable of having another bite and holding our bellies in pain. I can't wait until next year!