Pasta - - Page 11

by BS

Fix the Fuck Up: Asparagus Tamed

This one was all you, ES-ers! I had no idea why my Fine Cooking-inspired asparagus pasta strands were such a horrible, ugly, falling-apart mess:

But you guys were all like, duh, just shave your strands off the stalks before you cook them, and it totally worked. I cut off the asparagus tips, then used the vegetable peeler to shave fettuccine-like strands off the stalks, which worked much, much better than trying to shave the steamed asparagus. The first few strips I shaved off were beautiful, pasta-like green strands, although it got harder to shave them as the stalk got smaller, but still, infinitely more successful than the first go-around.

I cooked the fettuccine (OK well, I had used all my fettuccine in the original fuck up, so I subbed linguine) for five minutes, then threw the asparagus strands and tips into the same boiling water and cooked for another five minutes.

How much better does that look? Thank, team ES!

in Veggie 2 comments

by gansie

Chasing the Ratatouille Dragon

Editor’s Note: LC has one heck of a project going on. She’s pledged to archive her family’s’ recipes, chicken scratched notes and all. And although she sent this post to me acknowledging, “I have been delinquent on many things, not least of which is my recipe project,” I know she secretly loves uncovering the depths of her ancestral cabinet. Here’s a continuation of LC’s family cookbook. And here’s her first entry into ES chronicling. Now enjoy round two. And ps, her mom is a trained chef – pay attention to the appendix.

I just watched Ratatouille and at one point the cold, cynical, snobby food critic is transported back to his childhood upon tasting the dish ratatouille. You can see his presumptuousness and pomposity fall away as he takes a bite of his childhood.

The dish I’m presenting you today, Chicken Almondzini, is not that kind of a dish. There’s no transcending. No passionate memory floods upon first taste. But it is quite delicious nonetheless.

Per my grandmother’s main criteria for dishes needing to feed armies, Chicken Almondzini will feed a lot of people. When my mom and I recreated it we didn’t plop it in a casserole dish—which would have made it more “home cooking-y”—for fear it would have also been dry as toast.

Our creation is in recipe form, which I know is contrary to ES philosophy, but feel free to make it to your taste. If you want to make it to my mom’s taste however, her exacting standards can be met by adhering to the following:

by gansie

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

I’m with you. No one wants to be drumming on a keyboard and sweatily gripping on a mouse the Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend.

So before you log off and dive into a three day feast of grilled meats, here’s how ESers kept us busy and laughing and thinking about grammitcal correctness.

But real quick, the results are in. Check out the winners in our crazy-grill-it contest.

And fine, one more thing, check out the Endless Simmer love in Melissa McCart‘s WaPo article on mini-grills.

Happy grill season everyone!

Carb Love
TVFF glorified refined carbohydrates in his post about Domino’s new *Bread Bowl Pasta*.

But, LC was able to see beyond the cheesey goodness and the nonsensical tag line:

Also, is it me or does “pasta so good you’ll devour the bowl” make no sense whatsoever. The bowl isn’t made out of pasta. And if the pasta is so good wouldn’t you want more…pasta?

in Drinks 0 comments

by BS

Friday Fuck-Ups: Asparagus Disaster

I just recently found out about Fine Cooking Magazine. Does anyone else read this? It’s actually great — a glossy magazine devoted entirely to recipes and useful cooking tips. None of the boring wine recommendations or 10,000-word essays on strolling through Paris that clog up Gourmet and BonApp. It’s actually more like Cook’s Illustrated, except with color photos.

In the front of the magazine, they have a feature called “What We’re Cooking Now.” They select three seasonal ingredients, and each of three editors details a quick, easy way to use them up. In a recent spring issue, they covered asparagus, arugula, and rhubarb. As you know, we’ve been fiending for ways to use up all this beautiful spring asparagus and arugula, so I was into this idea, and particularly loved one ed’s suggestion for asparagus:

in Veggie 9 comments

by tvff

What, No Breadsticks?

Edible serving vessels tend to work better in theory than in practice. That hollowed-out loaf of bread that holds your spinach dip is always a bit of a disappointment. Taco Bell has those edible salad bowls which aren’t bad until you get down below the “refried bean equator,” at which point things tend to get a bit soggy.

Have you ever been working your way through a nice serving of baked pasta, al forno for our Italian friends, and thought to yourself, “This would be so much better if I could eat the cookware?”

Well, for the low, low price of six bucks, you can live out your fantasy thanks to the folks at Domino’s Pizza. The new bread bowl pasta features one of five choices of baked pasta, including flavors such as primavera, alfredo and sausage marinara, surrounded by an edible bowl made of pizza dough. If that sounds delicious to you, then you’re likely addicted to white flour like I am.

Fortunately, I’m running a marathon this weekend, so one of these puppies will make for the perfect carbo-loading feast. And if you have a sneaking suspicion that it may not be the healthiest menu choice, wait until you hear the actual numbers…

in Cheese 9 comments

by ML

Why America Eats Shit

If you’re a tv junkie, you may have seen it.

It may have burned your corneas.

TLC has paired up with Ragu “sauce”, endorsing the product through the above pictured Hayes family. The Hayes star in the new series “Table For 12” (you know, the Jon and Kate replacement, now that shit hit the fan). There’s even a commercial with the busy family, with the tagline “more of the good stuff,” conveying the message that you can eat well for less if you buy Ragu sauce.

I admit, I eat jarred sauce from time to time. But not this shit. Personally, I think Ragu tastes like canned tomatoes covered in sugar packets, which is no surprise considering its third ingredient is high fructose corn syrup. It also contains “spices” and “natural flavor”….what??

Sure, I get it. Ten kids, busy mom, blah blah blah. But is Ragu really that affordable compared to homemade sauce, and is it really easier? I think opening just one of those jars is a bitch, more so if I was feeding twelve fucking people. I’d rather just throw some tomatoes and spices in a pot and let it cook. But of course, the media is endorsing the “moms (or dads) are too busy to cook” doctrine. Again.

Bottom line: if my roommate and I could make a batch of her family’s sauce while hungover (or still drunk) in between classes in our college apartment, so can anybody. Families don’t have to be subject to this torture, not even the big ones.

Who wants to film a public service announcement?

in Rants & Raves / Trends / TV 16 comments

by gansie

Partially Legit Pesto

I’ve stumbled upon this dilemma before, even though BS provided a fairly clear answer. But after my latest pesto abortion (above), I decided to actually be the writer I strive to be and investigate.

Deducting from The New Food Lover’s Companion, the main tenets of a pesto come from the Italian origin of the name, “to pound” and the cooking method, well, is the uncooking method. The ingredients of a pesto should be crushed together to create a raw sauce. The pulveration of the sauce can be through either a mortar and pestle or a food processor. And the uncooked part, well, I guess the sauce is not meant to be warmed by fire.

My newest “pesto” therefore is only partially legit. I used my mini-food processor, but with the bitey combination of raw garlic and arugula (so plentiful at the farmers’ market!), I felt the need to heat it through, for really just as long as the pasta cooked and it surely helped with the sting of the sauce.

And just to stick it to TVFF and all you other multi-way haters, I went for a dual usage of the arugula – in the pesto and then added an overwhelming handful to swim with the noodles.

Unorthodox recipe post jump.

in Cheese / Featured / Recipe 8 comments

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