Writing about food since 2004.
Category
Pasta/Risotto
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Easy Eggplant and Tomato Pasta with Mozzarella
If you make pasta with Pecorino and black pepper and call it “pasta with Pecorino and black pepper,” you won’t get into trouble on the internet for making an incorrect cacio e pepe. So it’s in that same spirit that I present to you an eggplant and tomato pasta with mozzarella that’s definitely not Pasta…
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Baked Pasta with Kabocha Squash, Radicchio, Walnuts, and Taleggio
If my friends who are cooking Thanksgiving this year have one dilemma it’s the issue of beloved vegetarians. Do you relegate them to side dishes while everyone else eats turkey? Do you make the main event vegetarian so that everyone feels included? Is it even Thanksgiving if there isn’t a dead animal on the table?…
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Rigatoni with Sausage and Butternut Squash
Over my twenty years of doing The Amateur Gourmet, I’ve been approached by fans a handful of times. Usually the exchange is quick and pleasant: I feel a thrill for being recognized and hopefully they feel a thrill for meeting their favorite nerdy, gay, old-school food blogger. However the exchange goes, I’m always on the…
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Spicy Cauliflower Pasta
Whenever I’m asked “what’s your favorite cookbook?” my instant response is always The Zuni Café Cookbook by Judy Rodgers. What’s funny about that is that as much as I adore this book — it’s a constant presence on my most prominent cookbook shelf — I rarely, if ever, cook from it.
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Bucatini with Swiss Chard, Raisins, and Parmesan
Sometimes sharing a recipe is like playing a game of telephone. Take, for example, this recipe for Bucatini with Swiss Chard, Raisins, and Parmesan. It’s based on a recipe that I saw on Nigella Lawson’s website; but it turns out that she got the recipe from Joshua McFadden’s Six Seasons. I’m sure Nigella changed the…
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Bucatini Carbonara
There are lots of conversations in food media, by people much smarter than myself, about “authenticity” in cooking and what that even means. The trend seems to be that we’re shifting away from the word, which is a relief, since I’m about to share my go-to Carbonara recipe and who knows what a real Italian…
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Crispy Pierogi with Pork and Dried Fruit
The best pierogi I’ve ever eaten in my life — one that ruined all other pierogi for me — was at Michael Symon’s now-closed restaurant Lola in Cleveland, Ohio. I still remember what it looked like: a half moon of crispy dough stuffed with beef cheeks. It was maybe one of the most decadent things…
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Baked Pasta with Fontina and Roasted Mushrooms
Some new friends were coming over the other night and I asked them what they ate and they said “we eat meat but mostly vegetables” and that’s when I knew I was going to serve them a pound of cheese. It’s not that I was trying to fatten them up or punish them for being…
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No-Bacon-Necessary Pasta with Porcini Rosemary Tomato Sauce
Every so often, I think about my dog and the fact that I could never eat him. Then I think about how he looks like a piglet and how I do eat pigs by way of bacon. But if I do eat bacon and bacon comes from a pig aren’t I eating a version of…
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Delicata Squash and Mushroom Risotto with Parmesan and Saba
There’s a certain type of cooking that I excel at and it’s called “I just got back from a trip and what do I have in my fridge?” cooking. Usually, when I get back from somewhere, I’m too fatootsed to go food shopping, so I either (a) give in and order take-out from Pine and…
