I was in my hometown – Urbana, Illinois – talking to Inga, one of my oldest and dearest friends. We were discussing gardening and cooking, as we inevitably do, when she said something simple that brought me up short. Something like: “I grow a lot of broccoli, because we eat a lot of it, and…
Eating Chicago: Osteria di Eataly
Last weekend I was in Chicago for BlogHer Food ’15. They kept us busy with keynotes and breakouts and meals and sponsors, all on the Gold level of the downtown Hyatt, which was nice enough – but underground. So chances to actually see Chicago (or the sky!) were few. One chance came on Saturday with…
Pasta with Marcella Hazan’s Simple Tomato-Butter Sauce
This is not going to be my most original post, because it seems like every food blogger has, at some point, posted Marcella Hazan’s recipe for tomato-butter sauce. It’s not hard to see why, even before you taste it: It has three ingredients. You throw them in a pan and let them simmer. If it’s…
Pappardelle with Quick and Luxurious Lemon Cream Sauce
Okay, my friends, here it is: This is the kind of recipe you’re here for. It’s truly luscious, sensuous with cream and bright with tangy lemon. But even better, it is dead simple. The shopping list for this luxurious lemon-cream sauce? Butter, cream, and lemons. I often read in Italian cookbooks that a simple…
Cincinatti Chili
A few weeks ago, my sweetie went to Cincinatti for work. Without me. Which means he got to eat Cincinatti chili. Without me. Obviously, something had to be done. I’ve only been to Cincinatti once, on a road trip. I don’t remember where we were going. But I remember stopping at Skyline Chili. I recall…
Linguine with Eggplant Parmesan Sauce
For the food-obsessed, this is one of the most exciting times of year. After winter whittled our produce options down to hairy carrots, pale cabbages, and shriveled garlic, spring teased us with promise — but mostly provided an exhaustingly constant supply of greens and the here-and-gone quicksilver magic of fresh berries. But now we’re at…
Creamy Baked Ziti with Cottage Cheese and Tomato Sauce
Baked pasta is incredibly appealing, especially on chilly winter evenings. Yielding pasta, tangy tomato sauce, creamy cheese, chewy brown edges – what’s not to love? Unfortunately, baked pasta often fails to live up to its Platonic ideal. The pasta overbakes to mush, or comes out dry and unappealing; the ricotta layer that should give such…
Spanakopasta: Spaghetti with Spinach and Feta
Last week I bought the new, revised edition of How to Cook Everything. I had actually forgotten there was a revision until I ordered it – I just think that once your paperback copy of a book has fallen into three or more pieces, it’s time to invest in the hardcover. I was reading the…
Yaki-Soba: Japanese Stir-Fried Noodles
Yaki-soba is one of those essentially simple, endlessly flexible dishes, perfect for times when the cupboard is relatively bare and you have some odds and ends to use up. Today I made it as an unusual destination for Thanksgiving leftovers, using chunks of turkey. It would be great for those days when you’re sick of…
Quick Eats: Fried Spaghetti
This is an idea I’ve come across a couple of times, but this particular time I saw it in Best American Recipes 2005-2006. And this is the time when, a few weeks after seeing the recipe, I got sick and my sweetie made me spaghetti for dinner. And there were leftovers. And what on earth…