Brown butter and sage pasta

The Goods*:

4 tbsp butter

1 handful fresh sage leaves

1 lemon's zest

parmesan cheese

1/2 lb fresh pasta

The sauce can be made while the water for the pasta is boiling, or a bit ahead of time. Place the butter in a small saucepan on medium-low heat. After the butter melts, semi-continuously stir it, to keep it from burning. Trim the stems from the sage leaves. Slice the sage leaves into long, thin strips. Finely mince the lemon zest. After a few minutes, the milk proteins will begin to brown. Once the butter has browned, but before it burns, turn off the heat. The brown butter should have a slightly nutty aroma. Add the sage and lemon zest, then set cover and set aside.

Once the pasta has been drained, toss with the brown butter mixture. Top with grated parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

*I am really getting into fresh pasta. The more I make it, the more I realize that its really not such an ordeal.

PS: The start of baseball season is not conducive to blogging about interesting things I've cooked.

Lemon pesto

The Goods*:

2 cups fresh basil

1/4 cup pine nuts**

2/3 cup olive oil

1 lemon's worth of lemon zest

parmesan cheese

1 lb Dave's Fresh Pasta Asparagus and Lemon Raviolis

Place the pine nuts in a skillet on medium heat. Toast until just after they brown. Remove from the heat and set aside. Remove the basil leaves from the stems and give them a rough chop. Add the basil, pine nuts, lemon zest, a healthy pinch of kosher salt, and some ground black pepper to the food processor (or, if you're like me, a blender). Pulse twice at low speed. Slowly add the oil while pulsing the at low speed. Continue blending/processing until the ingredients are well incorporated.

Cook one's pasta/ravioli per box/vendor instructions. After draining, toss the pasta with the pesto and top liberally with grated parmesan cheese.

*Pesto is one of those things, that to me, exists in this abstract kind of "Why in the world would I ever pay for that when I can make it?" way. Of course, one has to get to the business of actually MAKING said dish. This past week, in what can only be described as fully blown serendipity, I spied one of those large plastic containers full of basil in the produce section at WF. Sadly, there is no magic ratio courtesy of Michael Ruhlman. I did a quick web search for basic pesto recipes, but found nothing terribly consistent, so here goes my half-assed kitchen cobbling...

**Be sure to avoid these pine nuts.

Dressed up Annie's #4 (new for spring!)

The Goods:

1 box Annie's Mac and Cheese

1 spring onion

10-12 basil leaves

1 clove garlic

1 large handful fresh parsley

1/4 cup aged gouda

parmesan cheese

Place a medium sauce pan three-quarters full of water on high heat. Spritz some olive oil in a sauté pan and set on medium low heat. Slice the spring onion (including the green parts) in 1 cm thick slices. Finely mince the garlic and parsley. Cut the basil leaves lengthwise into thin strips. When the oil is hot, add the onions. Cook on medium-low heat for a few minutes, until the onions begin to soften. Add the parsley, garlic, and basil and cook for another minute or so. Add a splash of water from the pasta sauce pan to deglaze.

Cook the Annie's per the box directions. Finely dice the gouda. When the pasta is cooked, add 2 tablespoons of milk, one small pad of butter, the cheese mix, the diced gouda, a few grates of parmesan, and the vegetables. Mix thoroughly. Serve with some chopped parsley and a few more grates of parmesan on top. Pair with a green salad.

Korean fusion dan dan noodles

The Goods*:

1/4 lb ground pork

1 handful Asian rice noodles

1 cup kimchi**

2 tbsp peanut oil

1 tbsp chili oil (as seen here, or you know, buy some)

1 tsp toasted, ground Sichuan pepper***

3 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp Shaoxing rice wine****

Prepare the rice noodles according to the package directions. Drain and set aside.

Place 1 tablespoon of the peanut oil in a wok on high heat. When the oil is hot, add the kimchi. Stir fry for about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and place the kimchi in a large bowl. Add the other tablespoon of oil to the wok and place back on high heat. Add the ground pork. Once the pork starts to separate and has started to brown, add the wine and 1 tsp of the soy sauce. Once the pork is cooked, though not dried out, about 3-4 minutes, remove from the heat and add to the kimchi. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and toss with the noodles. Serve immediately.

*I recently finished reading Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, a food/travel memoir by Fuchsia Dunlop, which I'd recommend if you're into food and/or travel writing, though I'd have to say her reserved British style is a marked contrast from the booze-fueled mayhem of Bourdain. My curiosity was such that I had to race out and purchase Land of Plenty, her Sichuanese cookbook. Needless to say, I'll be trying my hand at some of these recipes in the near future.

**The recipe calls for Ya Cai pickled vegetables and I have cleverly inserted kimchi. I purchased what I THINK are Ya Cai pickled vegetables from the Super 88, but I have no way of fully knowing, as every character on the jar is Chinese. Anyway, this allows me to use some of that glass vat of kimchi chilling in the refrigerator.

***Sichuan peppercorns are a really interesting ingredient. They have a lemony, coriander-like taste and leave the tongue almost completely numb in the aftertaste. I have no idea how available they are; I found mine at Christina's in Cambridge. Dunlop recommends toasting a batch (6 tablespoons at a time) in a dry wok for about 5 minutes and then grinding the peppercorns in a mortar. I would also recommend bumping this down to 1/2 a teaspoon, that is until one is fully adapted to the taste (read: face numbing).

****Here's another fun Chinese ingredient. Imagine sake if soy sauce had a slightly boozier love child.

Garlic soup

The Goods*:

4 cloves garlic

2 cups vegetable stock

2 large leaves lacinto kale

1 egg

3 tbsp orzo

1 tsp olive oil

grated parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place three cloves of garlic, with the skin still on, in a small pyrex container in the oven for 15 minutes to roast. Finely mince the remaining clove of garlic. Remove the the skins from the roasted garlic and finely mince them as well.

Place the stock in a small saucepan on medium heat. When it comes to a simmer, add the garlic. Cook the garlic for five minutes in the stock. Roughly chop the kale. After five minutes, add the kale, olive oil, and orzo to the pan. Cook for 8 or so minutes, until the pasta is al dente. Break the egg in a small bowl. Add some fresh ground black pepper to the egg, ladle some stock in, and thoroughly beat the mixture. It is important to add the hot stock to temper the egg, so it does not instantly scramble when added to the soup. When the pasta has cooked, remove the pan from the heat. Slowly pour in the egg. Top with grated parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

*My random wandering on the NY Times website brought me to this recipe a few days ago. I thought that it might be better to start from stock instead of water (spoiler alert: It was). Also, I went with more garlic, because one can never get enough garlic.

Lemon, rosemary, and bacon-y kale with orzo

The Goods:

1 bunch Lacinato kale

2 strips thick-cut bacon

4 tsp lemon juice

4 sprigs fresh rosemary

2 star anise pods

1/2 dozen crimini mushrooms

1/2 medium onion

1 cup orzo*

1/2 cup white wine

1/4 cup gruyere cheese

3 liters water

100 grams kosher salt, plus more for tasting

Thinly slice the bacon strips. Place the bacon in a heavy sauté pan on medium heat. As the bacon begins to brown, turn down the heat. The goal is to cook the bacon and render off as much fat as possible. Remove the cooked bacon from the pan and set aside. Leave the bacon fat in the pan.

Add the water and kosher salt to a large pot. Roughly chop two of the rosemary sprigs. Add the chopped rosemary springs, the anise pods, and two tsp of lemon juice to the pot. Set the pot to boil on high heat. Wash the kale. Tear the kale leaves into bite size pieces. Discard the stems. Prepare an ice bath by adding a dozen ice cubes to a large bowl of cold tap water. Blanch the kale by boiling for 2 minutes and then transferring immediately to the cold water bath. Drain the kale from the water bath in a colander. Take care to remove the stray ice cubes, anise pods, and large rosemary sprigs. Set aside.

Set a medium saucepan, three-quarters full of water, to boil on high heat. Slice the mushrooms and finely dice the onion. Place the sauté pan with the bacon fat on medium heat. Cook the mushrooms for a few minutes, until they brown. Add the onions, season with salt and pepper, and reduce the heat to low. Cook until the onions are translucent. Strip the leafy portion from remaining two rosemary sprigs and finely chop. When the onions are cooked, add the rosemary. Then, deglaze with the white wine and lemon juice. Add the blanched kale to the pan and cook on low until the liquid has reduced by a half.

Grate the gruyere using a box grater. Cook the orzo according to the box directions. Combined the cooked, drained orzo with the bacon and the contents of the sauté pan. Top with the grated cheese and serve.

Bacon makes everything better.

*I think the dish would be slightly more balanced with 3/4 cup orzo instead of a full cup. I always forget how much orzo expand after cooking.

Dressed up Annie's #3

The Goods:

1 box Annie's Mac and Cheese

1/2 doz. crimini mushrooms

1 medium-sized leek

1 15 oz can black beans

1/4 cup St. Andre cheese*

1/4 cup Trader Joe's Light Mexican Shredded Cheese Blend**

1 sprig parsley

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp chili powder

Place a medium saucepan three-quarters full of water on high heat. Add a spritz of olive oil to a sauté pan; place on medium heat. Wash and slice the mushrooms. Finely dice the leeks and mince the parsley. Once the oil is hot, add the mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms for a few minutes, until they brown. Then add the leeks. Season with salt, pepper, coriander, cumin, and chili powder. Once the leeks are translucent, deglaze the pan with a bit of water. Add the beans. Cook on high until almost all of the water is driven off.

Cook the Annie's per the box directions. Finely dice the St. Andre. After draining the pasta, add the bean/leek/mushroom mixture, the milk (per box directions, about 2 tablespoons), both cheeses, and the parsley. Place the pot back on the semi-hot (and off) burner and mix until all of the cheese has melted.

*This cheese is incredible. Its like Brie on creamy, delicious steroids.

**Obviously, I'm trying to empty the fridge of random things.

Fresh pasta

The Goods*:

6 oz. semolina flour, plus some extra

4 oz. (2 large) eggs

Weigh out the flour in a large bowl. Make an opening in the center, this is where the eggs will go. Crack the eggs and add them to the "cup" in the flour. With your hands, incorporate the flour and the eggs.

After the dough is mixed, transfer to a well-floured working surface. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes. The goal is to even out the dough and produce a velvety texture. After kneading, form the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 10 minutes to an hour.

After refrigerating, cut the dough into four equal-sized pieces. On a well-floured surface, roll each piece into a flat sheet. It is important to make the entire sheet as thin as possible (without any portion of it tearing), while maintaining an even thickness throughout the sheet. Hang the sheets on a rack (or failing that, a kitchen chair) for approximately half an hour to dry before cutting. Using a paring knife, cut ~1 cm thick fettucini noodles**. Cook the pasta in a large (as large as possible) pot of boiling, well-salted water. The noodles should cook quickly, give them a minute after they've floated to the surface. Serve with anything at all. I served this batch simply, with olive oil, chopped garlic, parsley, and thyme.

The eggs meet the flour.

The pasta sheets dry on a kitchen chair. Classy.

The freshly cut product.

*I was pretty surprised to learn that the ratio for pasta is simply 3 parts flour : 2 parts egg. Making pasta at home really is this easy. I didn't even use a crank or extruder or any other pasta making device, just a rolling pin.

**Obviously, this is where a pasta-maker would come in handy. The down-side here is the possibility (read: inevitability) of non-uniform noodle thickness. This may complicate things in cooking and is also an aesthetic bummer.

Dressed up Annie's #2

The Goods:

1 box Annie's Mac and Cheese

1/4 cup unremembered Austrian cheese*

1/4 lb air-cured pork belly

1 small shallot

1 clove garlic

Place a medium saucepan three-quarters full of water on high heat. Dice the pork belly into 1 cm cubes. Place the pork pieces in a sauté pan on medium high heat. Finely dice the garlic and shallot. Cook the pork until all of the fat has rendered and the meat has browned. Add the garlic and shallot and cook for a few more additional minutes, taking care not to burn the garlic. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Cook the Annie's according to the package directions. Finely dice the unnamed cheese. After straining the pasta, add the milk (about 2 tablespoons, per the box directions), the cheese, the powdered cheese, and the pork belly**. Place the pot back on the burn and mix until the cheese has melted. Serve immediately.

Pork belly: massive chunk of bacon

*This, along with the pork belly, was purchased at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge. As often happens at Formaggio, I will taste a cheese that they have out for sampling and then immediately purchase some of said cheese. Unfortunately I cannot recall the name of the cheese in question, but it is made from cow's milk, hails from Austria, has an incredibly pungent aroma, and the name's Scrabble score would be easily over 80 (that is to say without any word or letter score modifiers).

**It is fair to say that one has added plenty of rich, fatty goodness with the pork belly and the butter that the box recommends can be skipped. In fact, it is highly recommended that this be served with a salad of some kind to offset the 400% of daily saturated fat present in this dish.

Butter and parsley spaetzle

The Goods:

7 oz all purpose flour

2 eggs

5 tbsp water

1 pinch nutmeg

several sprigs parsley (about a cup chopped)

butter/olive oil

Place a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Weigh out the floor in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center. In another, smaller bowl, beat the eggs with the water and nutmeg. Add some of the liquid to the middle of the flour well and mix the flour in gradually. This is a lot harder than it sounds. I find that when doing something like this its best to try to assign one 'wet' hand and one 'dry' hand, but of course even that tends to break down sometimes. Needless to say, one's hands become useless, over gobbed with sticky wet spaetzle dough. If your eggs are of the larger variety, you may need to add slightly more flour. The final dough should not be too wet.

Roll out the dough on a well-floured surface to a thickness of about a centimeter*. Cut a vertical strip about a centimeter thick. Form the spaetzle by cutting this strip into little 1 cm (or desired thickness, but try to be uniform for cooking time purposes) bits. Repeat until all of the dough has been formed into spaetzle.

Once the water is boiling, add salt and the spaetzle. While the spaetzle boils, chop the parsley. Boil until all of the spaetzle floats to the top. It is helpful to test one (or many) spaetzle(s) for done-ness. Drain in a colander, then return to the pot. Add the parsley and a bit of butter/olive oil**. Toss together and serve immediately.

*Some spaetzle recipes preach the utility of extruding one's spaetzle through a colander. This idea is seductive in its simplicity. I mean, hey, not only am I multitasking with the colander (THE VERY TOOL I WILL LATER USE TO DRAIN THE SPAETZLE), but I'm also saving time with the rolling pin, floured surface, etc. Let me say, it is extremely difficult to extrude spaetzle through a colander. The dough is sticky and not terribly flow-able.

**It is all about personal fat preference here. I used a mixture, roughly 1 tbsp butter and 2-3 spritzes of oil.

Ravioli in broccolini sauce

The Goods*:

1 lb frozen cheese ravioli

1 16 oz can peeled chopped tomatoes**

1 bunch broccolini

1/2 medium yellow onion

3 large cloves garlic

1 sprig fresh parsley

1/2 tsp basil

Fill a large pot with water and set on high to boil. Finely dice the onion, garlic, and parsley. Chop the broccolini into bite-sized pieces. Spritz some oil in a sautè pan and set the heat to medium low. Sweat the onions for a few minutes and add the garlic, broccolini, and parsley before they (the onions) brown. Continue to cook for another couple of minutes then add the basil, salt, red and black pepper, and the tomatoes. Raise the heat to high and bring the liquid to a vigorous boil. Continue to keep the heat on high, stirring often, until the sauce has thickened to your desired consistency, then lower the heat to low until the pasta is done. Toss with the drained pasta, serve immediately.

*This might seem like a lot for ravioli with tomato sauce. It really is not. Boiling water for pasta takes time (boiling being the preferred cooking method); this preparation will fill that time and not a whole lot more.

**I would love to substitute fresh tomatoes when they're in season.

Dressed up Annie's #1

The Goods:

1 box Annie's Mac and Cheese*

1/2 cup fresh fontina cheese

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp milk

1/2 medium-sized yellow onion

4-5 crimini mushrooms

3-4 broccolini florets

1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

1 tsp cumin powder

Fill a medium saucepan with water, set on high heat to boil. Mince the onion, slice the mushrooms, and chop the broccolini. Add some olive oil to a skillet and set the heat to medium-low. Saute the onions for a few minutes, then add the mushrooms and broccolini. Season with salt, pepper, cumin, and red pepper and/or chili powder (depending on your preference for heat). Once the onions are translucent and the other vegetables have cooked, remove from the heat.

Set the oven's broiler to high. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a small bowl (roughly 30 seconds in the microwave will do nicely). Slice the fontina into small cubes. After the water has boiled, season with some salt, and add the Annie's pasta. Boil for 8-10 minutes (per the box), then strain. Combine the pasta with the mix included in the Annie's box, the other tablespoon of butter, the milk, the vegetables, and the fontina. Mix until the butter and fresh cheese have melted completely.

Add the mac and cheese to something oven safe. I used three 6 ounce ramekins, and it everything fit perfectly. If one opts for ramekins, people can have contained individual portions, which can be nice. Place a layer of panko on top of the mac and cheese. Spread the melted butter evenly over all of the panko. Place in the oven, under the broiler, for 2-3 minutes, or until the panko has browned.

*Feel free to use any sort of Annie's, though I make no promises for the quality of the dish if one opts for a rice pasta variety.