Category

Pasta/Risotto

  • Cavatappi with Anchovies, Garlic, and Red Peppers

    Cavatappi with Anchovies, Garlic, and Red Peppers

    Following a recipe can sometimes feel like you’re on a mad voyage with a crazed captain determined to set your kitchen ablaze in a quest to capture that ephemeral, culinary white whale. “Are you out of your mind?” I wanted to yell at Melissa Clark, whose Pasta with Caramelized Peppers and Anchovies inspired this particular…

  • Anytime Pasta with Scallions, Peas, and Parmesan

    Anytime Pasta with Scallions, Peas, and Parmesan

    Pour one out, if you will, for the imported Italian bowl that you see above: I bought it on eBay a few years ago, it was my pride and joy, and yesterday — after doing the dishes — I was putting ramekins away high up in a cabinet and one of them fell and broke…

  • Pasta with Zucchini and Almonds

    Pasta with Zucchini and Almonds

    I’m not the world’s biggest zucchini fan. It’s fine: I like it in bread, I guess I like it in a salad. Maybe on a pizza? But there’s one recipe from my archives that really made zucchini come alive for me. That’s this side dish of Zucchini with Almonds from The Red Cat in New…

  • Lots of Broccoli Rabe, A Little Pasta

    Lots of Broccoli Rabe, A Little Pasta

    As much as I like cooking for other people, I REALLY like cooking for myself. It’s a chance to really tap into how I’m feeling in a particular moment, what I’m craving, and then to give myself exactly that. There’s an actual an art to knowing what you want (believe me, I talk about it…

  • Introvert’s Rigatoni with Sausage and Broccolini

    Introvert’s Rigatoni with Sausage and Broccolini

    People who meet me are often surprised when I describe myself as an introvert. On the surface, I come across as outgoing, exuberant even, but secretly I find human interaction to be very exhausting. Craig, on the other hand, finds human interaction to be incredibly stimulating. Not a surprise, then, that he describes himself as…

  • You Know You Want To Stir Ricotta Into Your Pasta

    You Know You Want To Stir Ricotta Into Your Pasta

    You’re going to start calling me a broken record on here. In fact, me saying that “I’m a broken record on here” feels like something I’ve said before. Essentially, I’m going to hit a few of the same themes in this post I’ve been hitting lately: (1) watching cooking shows on PBS; (2) going to…

  • Spaghetti with Crispy Chickpeas and Preserved Lemon

    Spaghetti with Crispy Chickpeas and Preserved Lemon

    Tom Colicchio’s always like “you didn’t develop any flavor” on Top Chef and most people are probably like “what’s he talking about?” My quick answer is: “He’s talking about making things brown.” Generally speaking, when you’re cooking something, you want it to turn brown (or, to use a prettier word, you want it to “caramelize.”)…

  • Psychedelic Purple Risotto

    Psychedelic Purple Risotto

    Cooking is a lot like writing in many ways; the further along I get as both a writer and a cook, the more I notice the similarities. For example, in both writing and cooking, clarity is key. You can fill a sentence with lots of high-falutin words, just like you can fill a dish with…

  • Penne with Bacon and Flageolet Beans

    Penne with Bacon and Flageolet Beans

    What’s with me and pasta? No, seriously, I’m really asking: how can I eat so much of it and never get tired of it? Sometimes I think it’s my own personal Rosebud, because my earliest food-related memories involve sitting at a little yellow plastic table on a gray carpet in front of the big TV,…

  • Summertime Pasta with Squash and Corn

    Summertime Pasta with Squash and Corn

    Looks can be deceiving. For example, the picture you see above probably looks pretty good, but not the kind of thing you’re going to e-mail to all of your friends with the subject “!!!!” and the message, “OH MY GOD WE HAVE TO MAKE THIS.” That’s a shame because, the thing is, if you could…