We went to a potluck dinner at my daughter’s school tonight. I brought a salad.
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A casserole
Tonight’s dinner was an exercise in stepping out of my comfort level. I made a casserole. With the exception of baked pasta (in all it’s glorious forms), I rarely make casserole-like dishes.
Polenta & Black Bean Casserole is easy to prepare and would be a great make-ahead dish. You could assemble it whenever, and then pop it in the oven 40 minutes before serving.
I liked it in a change of pace kind of a way. It used more canned ingredients than I would normally use in one recipe. And it seemed a little bit like something you might serve at a football party. But it was tasty, really tasty, and it definitely succeeded in pushing my boundaries a bit.
It’s not a dish that will become an easy weeknight regular for me. If I’m going to add it to my repertoire, I’ll need to find an appropriate occasion for it. (I don’t get invited to many football parties.)
Lazy Wednesday
For her: Aidells Chicken & Apple Mini Sausages*, three leftover butter and honey carrots and the world’s smallest serving of salad.
For me: leftover butter and honey carrots, leftover mashed turnips, salad with ricotta salata.
*With toothpicks. It’s an ingenious get-your-kid-to-eat trick.
Fish & veg
The unfortunate lesson of the night is that Cod is not an appropriate fish to cook the Adriatic Way.
Carrots however, are always good when cooked in butter with a little bit of honey. And Romanesco broccoli—tragic as it may seem to cut into something so mind bogglingly beautiful and fascinating—comes out well when roasted.
Pasta, pasta, pasta
We had pasta to please everyone tonight. Shane had meatballs, sauce, basil and cheese on his spaghetti. I had sauce, basil and cheese on mine. Rose had just meatballs and cheese on hers, and then promptly removed and didn’t eat the meatballs. (She’s strictly carbo-packing these days).
• Basic Tomato Sauce for Pasta, with or without Meatballs •
Sautee one medium yellow onion, chopped, in a generous amount of olive oil over low to medium heat until soft and nearly translucent. Add a clove or two of minced garlic and saute for a minute more. Add a can of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes. I like this brand best. Chop up the tomatoes a bit in the pan. Taste the sauce and if need be, you can add a half teaspoon of sugar. Cook for 10 minutes and season with salt and pepper. Remove half of the sauce to another pan and add meatballs (if using). Cook both sauces for 10 more minutes or so. Add a tablespoon of butter to each and stir to combine. You can serve either version topped with slivered fresh basil and parmesan or pecorino cheese, or not.
Pork Sunday
Tonight we had pork tenderloin, rice, mashed turnips (yum!), and an arugula, fennel and parsley salad with pistachios and ricotta salata. Shane made the pork, that’s why it was served in a brownie pan (sigh).
For dessert we had Chocolate Shortbread.
• Basic Mashed Turnips •
3 lbs turnips peeled and cut into 1″ chunks
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2/3 cup whole milk or half and half
salt and pepper to taste
Boil turnips in salted water until fork tender. Drain turnips and combine with butter and milk or cream in a bowl. Mash with a potato masher and season with salt and pepper.
Chocolate shortbread
Chocolate Shortbread Fingers from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook are one of my favorite things to make when I don’t have much time, and I want to bring something to a party, or whatever. If you bake from time to time, there’s a good chance you’ll already have all the ingredients on hand. These are so good, so very good.
I’m turning into my mother
I used to laugh alongside my dad as he poked fun at my mom and her “goddamn greens.” Even when we ordered pizza she’d insist on making a salad, or something else nice and green, to go with it.
Just look at me now, humbled.
Pasta & miso, who knew?
Pasta with Pancetta & Miso is divine, on so many levels! I am already a huge fan of the miso/butter combination but I never would have thought to add it to pasta. It’s quick and super-easy to make too.
The one thing I would have done differently is to simply scatter the mozzarella on top of the pasta in the serving dish, instead of tossing it. The mozzarella became to melty, and was a stringy blob that we had to kind of rip apart to divide between our plates. Also, it would have been easier for me to pick out the pancetta bits* if the cheese wasn’t all melted around them.
Serve this dish with a simple salad. We had arugula with left over cilantro mayonnaise, which I revamped into a salad dressing.
*That’s the kind of vegetarian I’ve become, thanks to my seriously carnivorous family. A picker outer of meaty bits vegetarian.
I blame myself
The Lentil Goat Cheese Burgers were weird. The flavor was good, and the addition of cilantro mayonnaise was a nice touch. But the texture, ugh, not good, not good at all.
The recipe came from Teresa Cooks and her recipes are always great, so I blame myself. I think where I went wrong was in using canned lentils instead of dry. This is the only thing I can think of that could have contributed to the terrible, mush-like, texture.
On the upside, the oven fries were as wonderful as ever. And it was oh so refreshing to have a nice green salad after weeks and weeks of cabbage. (I’m still working through the last of my csa cabbage, but with no box coming this week, I felt I could justify taking a break.)