spinach - - Page 4

by gansie

Follow the Leader: It’s All in the Twirl

Last summer I snagged an invite to a Bon Appetit book signing party for their 770-page Fast Easy Fresh. While juggling Sweetgreen‘s froyo in one hand, a glass of wine in another, and this book in between my arm and my boob, I made my way over to Barbara Fairchild for a signature. We briefly chatted about my oven’s inability to keep heat and then I was off, lugging this book back to my apartment, wondering where to fit this thick, heavy dead tree.

And that was the last time I touched the book. Until Monday’s dinner. I pulled Bon App and Gourmet’s March 2009 mags, plus this monster.

I had one ingredient in mind: parsnips. Ever since my pizza laced with parsnips, I’ve been wanting to cook them myself. Fast Easy Fresh had one parsnip recipe. It was bullshit.

It told me to peel the parsnips, cut them, season with oil, salt and pepper and roast at 425 for 35 minutes. HOW IS THAT A RECIPE. That is crap. That is not interesting. That is not creative. It is not worthy of half a page. Bon App – I turn to you for inspiration. I could have found this on some generic Cooks.com site.

I roasted them anyway, cut in coins, with the addition of Herbs de Provence. But this was only part of my ad hoc meal. And actually the least important.

Homemade Pasta, Take Two

Right off the bat, I have to give you ESers credit for suggesting the Pioneer Woman’s pasta recipe. I used it for my second go at making pasta and it blew the recipe from the pasta machine box out of the water. It’s funny how only a few tiny little differences can make such a sea change in the final product. I guess you bakers out there already knew that, huh? I don’t know if it was the flour-to-egg ratio, the beating the eggs by hand (which was fun!) or something else that put this one over the top, but it finally got me that fresh fettuccine I was looking for.

Still, as tasty as fresh pasta is, it’s still just pasta, and if you ask me it needs some added oomph. I was tempted to add some truffle oil or basil or something weirder right into the dough, but I wanted to first see how the basic recipe worked, so I resisted the urge this time. (Yep, I’m proud of myself and yep, I’m open to suggestions for the future.)

So the flava experimenting was left for the pasta add-ons. Looking around my kitchen, I saw the usual suspects: bacon and pine nuts. Two ingredients I’ve blabbed on about for years, yet had somehow never completely been brought together. Until now.