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.