Month: February 2010

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Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

I think this just may be my new favorite spaghetti sauce.  It is simple to make, inexpensive, tangy from the olives and capers, with a subtly spicy kick from the red pepper flakes.  Making puttanesca sauce from scratch is barely more effort than opening a jar of Prego, but it’s much tastier – not to mention, you control the quality of the ingredients and there are far fewer preservatives.  Plus, saying “spaghetti alla puttanesca” is fun.  Now, who can argue with that?

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, medium-diced
kosher salt
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced anchovy
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon oregano
1 can crushed San Marzano tomatoes in juice
1/4 cup green olives, sliced (substitute black olives)*
1 tablespoon non-pareil capers, rinsed
whole wheat spaghetti

  • In a heavy stockpot over medium-high heat, heat olive oil until shimmering, then add diced onion and season generously with kosher salt.  Stir frequently until onion is slightly caramelized, 12-15 minutes.
  • Add tomato paste, garlic, red pepper flakes and anchovy, and stir until anchovy has melted and garlic is golden, about 1 minute.  (Your kitchen now smells amazing, by the way.)
  • Boil water for spaghetti – I prefer whole wheat – and prepare spaghetti according to the package directions.
  • Add crushed tomatoes, oregano, olives and capers.  Stir to combine all ingredients, then turn heat down and allow sauce to simmer while pasta finishes cooking.
  • Divide pasta into bowls and top with sauce.  Add a sprinkle of extra oregano if desired and serve.  Couldn’t be easier!

Yield: Serves 2 for dinner, with leftovers.

Source: Adapted from Williams-Sonoma

*The original/traditional recipe calls for black olives, but I can’t stand them, so I substituted green.  Feel free to experiment with different olives, or go back to tradition if you actually like black olives.

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Cinnamon-Chocolate Fudge

Hubby had just one request for the Superbowl: fudge.  We saw Giada make this cinnamon-chocolate fudge as part of her football snacks episode on “Giada At Home,” and ever since then, hubby has been wondering how he made it through so many football games without fudge.  Now, I like chocolate fudge just fine – generally, it’s not what I would choose, but it’s fine – but I had never tried making it before.  But seeing as this was ridiculously easy to make, and it made hubby oh-so-happy, I’ll probably be making it again.  Not for awhile, though… we’ve got quite a bit left.  To hubby’s coworkers, if you’re reading this… bring your appetites to work tomorrow (or whenever we dig out from “Snowmageddon” and actually see our offices again).

Cinnamon-Chocolate Fudge

2 cups milk chocolate chips (preferably Ghirardelli)*
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon**
3 tablespoons butter
Maldon sea salt (about a tablespoon)

  • Prepare an 8×8 baking pan by buttering the sides and bottom, then lining with parchment – leaving an overhang – and buttering the parchment.
  • In a double boiler, melt together the chocolate, condensed milk, cinnamon and butter until smooth.
  • Pour the chocolate-cinnamon mixture into the buttered baking pan and smooth the top.  Sprinkle over the Maldon sea salt to your taste (I like to be a bit generous with the salt).
  • Place the fudge in the refrigerator and allow to set, at least 2 hours.  Slice into small pieces and serve cold.

*The original recipe called for dark chocolate, but I generally prefer milk chocolate – and my picked-over grocery store was all out of dark chocolate.  (It’s good to see where people’s priorities lie when a blizzard is coming.)  Feel free to substitute dark chocolate of whatever percentage you prefer – the recipe recommends 60%, but I could see up to 72% being good if you are a dark chocolate fan.

**I stuck with the original recipe’s recommendation and used cinnamon, and it did give the chocolate a nice depth of flavor.  Hubby really liked the combination of chocolate and cinnamon, but I was less keen on it.  Objectively, they did work well together, but I just don’t care for the combination, apparently.  I think that next time I make this fudge, I’ll do it with a teaspoon of coffee-flavored extract or raspberry-flavored extract for a bit of a different spin.  You could also leave out the flavoring altogether, and stir in some chopped nuts instead.  This fudge recipe leaves lots of room for creativity.  Go nuts!

Source: Adapted from Giada At Home.

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Roasted Cabbage with Balsamic Drizzle

It’s no secret around these parts that I love roasted vegetables.  Cabbage is one of my favorite vegetables and, personally, I’ve never had any problems with cabbage flavor.  But I’d actually never tried roasting cabbage, and I’ve been wanting to for quite some time.  So last weekend I picked up a nice little green cabbage at the farmers market, with the express purpose of roasting it.  I had planned to just eat it as it came out of the oven, but then as I put it in, I thought, “what about a balsamic drizzle?”  Roasted vegetables are good on their own, but pairing them with something a little acidic often takes them to a whole new level – and that was the case this time, too.  The balsamic reduction takes on a tart-yet-sweet character, perfectly complementing the soft, juicy, caramelized cabbage.  And the best part?  Cabbage is cheap and this is quick and easy enough to throw together after work for a deliciously simple dinner.  Yum!

Roasted Cabbage with Balsamic Drizzle

1 green cabbage, outer leaves removed
extra-virgin olive oil
kosher salt
black pepper
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

  • Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Cut cabbage into 8 wedges of roughly equal size (just do your best).  Place them on a foil-lined baking sheet and toss gently with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, kosher salt and black pepper.  Roast for 15 minutes, then toss and roast for 15 minutes more.
  • During the second 15 minute roasting period, heat balsamic vinegar in a small pan, over medium heat.  Allow the vinegar to reduce by about half.  If more reduction is needed, in your judgment, turn the heat up to high and allow the vinegar to boil down during the last minute of roasting.
  • Pile cabbage wedges on a plate and drizzle the balsamic reduction over them.  Serve immediately!  They would be good over pasta, as a side dish for roasted chicken or sauteed chicken paillards, or (as I ate them) all alone, as an awesome lunch.

Source: Adapted from TheKitchn.

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Lemon-Buttered Pasta with Shrimp

Bring your appetite to this dinner.

I’ve mentioned before that hubby and I love to hike.  What I failed to mention, is that we are certifiably insane and we will quite literally hike in all kinds of weather.  And when I say all kinds, I mean all kinds.  Sure, we like to hike on those nice, pleasant, 70-degrees-and-sunny kinds of days.  But we’ve also hiked in the rain (Buttermere in the English Lake District) and the mist (Isle of Skye, Scotland) and in the snow.  We got a few inches in the DC suburbs on Saturday, and hubby and I decided to take advantage of it by throwing on the Smartwool socks and the hiking boots and the snowpants and going traipsing through our favorite neighborhood woodlands at Great Falls National Park.  Aside from the park rangers and one other crazy hiker, we were the only ones on the trails – well, with the exception of a huge flock of geese and one rather cold-looking heron (who let us get very close, since he was either too cold or too blase to fly away).  After about three hours of wading through the freshly fallen snow, hubby and I were: (1) freezing, and (2) ravenous.  We hurried home to this dinner, which took care of both the cold and the hunger in one shot.

Lemon-Buttered Pasta with Shrimp

1/3 package pasta, any shape (I used fusilli)
3 tablespoons butter, separated
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
4-5 shakes Tabasco sauce
black pepper
chopped chives (optional)

  • Boil a pot of water for pasta.  When water is at a rolling boil, salt liberally and add pasta.  Cook pasta according to package directions.
  • In a non-stick or cast-iron skillet or pot, heat 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil until butter has just melted.  Add shrimp and saute, tossing constantly, until shrimp turn pink.
  • When shrimp are cooked through, melt in the remaining butter.  Add lemon zest, juice, Tabasco sauce and pepper, and stir to incorporate all the flavors.
  • When pasta is finished cooking, transfer pasta with a slotted spoon over to the shrimp and sauce.  Toss pasta to coat completely.  If desired, sprinkle chopped chives (either fresh or freeze-dried) over pasta.  Serve immediately.

Source: Covered In Flour

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Whole Grain Apple-Cinnamon Muffins

I have a compulsion: I will almost always buy apples at the store, whether we need them or not.  I’ve been known to have three almost-full bags of apples knocking around my crisper drawer, because for some reason I just can’t stop myself from buying them at the grocery store.  It’s as if some unconscious part of me takes over in the produce section and says, “Mmmm, apples!  Delicious!” and just throws them in the cart without me having any control over it.  (That also happens with cucumbers.)  They are our standby lunch fruit, so we’ll go through 5-10 apples a week just by putting them in lunches (depending on if there are also grapes in the house, in which case I will take those for myself…) but we always, always seem to have extra apples.  I don’t know if they multiply in the fridge or what, but it seems to take forever to get through a bag and I invariably have leftovers at the end of the week.  When I am actually thinking intelligently about my grocery shopping, I will either restrain myself from buying apples or figure out some way to use up my extras – like turkey cutlets with sauteed apples and onions for dinner one night, or these muffins.

Ah, muffins.  Who doesn’t love muffins?  They are tasty, easy, and they have the cutest! name! ever!  But most of the time, they are also laden with butterfat and nutritionally void calories.  I try to make muffins at least somewhat nutritious by using whole grains, like rolled oats, along with whole wheat flour, and adding some flaxseed meal for the Omega-3s.  Tossing in a little fresh fruit can’t hurt, either.  And that’s where the apples come in… a relatively nutritious muffin, and an opportunity to use up some of those extra apples that are taking up half my crisper drawer?  That’s a very nice way to wake up on a weekend morning.

Whole Grain Apple-Cinnamon Muffins

1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour*
2/3 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup ground flaxseed meal
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup skim milk
8 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
2 large (preferably organic) eggs
1/3 cup honey
3 medium apples, large-diced

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Prepare a 12-cup muffin tin by spraying the wells with a baking spray (like Pam for Baking or Baker’s Joy), or by lining with paper or silicone muffin liners.
  • Combine the dry ingredients – flour, oats, flaxseed meal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon – in a large bowl and whisk together.
  • In a smaller bowl, combine the milk, applesauce, eggs and honey, and stir to combine.
  • Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix well.
  • Stir in the diced apple pieces.  Portion batter equally into muffin wells.
  • Bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the muffins comes out clean.

*The whole wheat flour actually adds to the taste of these muffins, so I encourage you to stick with it.  If you simply don’t like the taste, you can substitute white whole wheat flour, which is much milder but retains the same nutritional benefits as regular whole wheat, or even all-purpose flour, which is less nutritious.  Whole wheat flour also gives the muffins a somewhat denser crumb than you would get with all-purpose flour, but again, I think it works well with the apple pieces.  Certainly, you can substitute some of all of it, but please do give it a try!

Yield: 12 muffins.

Source: Covered In Flour