Lemon Chicken with Pasta

Speaks for itself, no?

A Saucy Dilemma

Although I often try to cook ethnic, traditional, or more gourmet-types of meals, my cooking isn't always all that sophisticated. I like a hot dog every now and again (but don't tell my mother!), and during the week, I eat many simple meals -- perhaps some grilled chicken, brown rice, steamed vegetables. The other day, Dad made a long-simmered tomato sauce (or on Long Island, sawce) and we had it with spaghetti and Italian sausages (sawsages) -- not a terribly complex meal.

I don't think there is anything traditional OR authentic Italian about Dad's tomato sauce (we're German-Eastern European-Scottish-Irish after all), but it's great and we all love it. He sweats onion, carrot, and later garlic. He adds some tomato paste and browns it to a rusty red (this is a key flavor component, I think). If there's meat involved, that's usually browned before the onions sweat, and is usually removed from the pot, but not always. He usually uses some chopped canned plum tomatoes (bought whole, chopped at home) and perhaps some canned sauce, puree, or some other canned product. [Don't turn your snooty snout up at these ingredients. If you buy good quality canned products, you can do just fine working only from the pantry.] My larger point here is that the end product is not always exactly the same, but it is always good.

I always go back and forth on one issue in particular involving our faux-Italian food, and that is whether I prefer a long-simmered and deeply flavored sauce, or a fresh, bright, tomatoey sauce. It's really difficult to choose, but I suppose it comes down to one ingredient: meat. If there's meat involved, I prefer the long-cooked sauce; no meat, and fresh tomato flavor it is!

Photo credits: FotoRita

Death in a Pan with a Side of Pasta

So there we were, in our usual spots in the living room, faced with the quotidian question of "What's for dinner?" As usual, Cotton suggested Zorn's (yeah, not happening). The usual suspects had already been consumed in the prior days of the week (Mexican, Chinese, you get the point). As a result of this, there was a craving for delicious pasta in the air.

Cotton and I went downstairs, past the Dolorean's bedroom, and into the pantry to investigate possible ingredients. There was an ample supply of pasta and some tomato products, but I really wasn't feeling a dish with tomatoes.

I brought the pasta upstairs and said "Pepper, now what?" She suggested a carbonara, and asked if there was any bacon in the house. In fact, there was some right in the refrigerator. I also encountered some mozzarella cheese right next to the bacon, and suggested that we use that too.

So, cheese, bacon, and a previous viewing of a bacon cheese roll translated into our first annual bacon roast (or bacon parmagiana as I fondly refer to it) as a tribute to the Epiphany. (Everyone does that don't they?)

Our bacon roast started off like a lattice topping for a pie and then lightly fried in a pan.

We removed it and filled it with about half a pound of the cheese (literally.) We then rolled it, toothpicked it shut, and placed it in a small foil lined roasting pan.

We roasted it in the oven at 450F until it was brown and bubbly.

Meanwhile, we boiled the pasta and fried up some garlic slices in the bacon grease. After the pasta cooked for about four minutes it was drained and added to the pan with the garlic and drippings. The egg whites and parmasean were then added and tossed with the pasta.

After about two minutes, six egg yolks were added and tossed in (off the heat) until they were cooked and a nice sauce was formed. The bacon roast was carved and served atop the carbonara with, you guessed it, more parmasean.

Needless to say, this was delicious and took about ten years off of our lives. However, it was soooo worth it. I look forward to next year's bacon roast adventure.

Recipe adapted from The Paupered Chef

Bolognese Bonanza

I had been craving a rich, hearty bolognese sauce for some time, and with snow and frigid temperatures setting in, I knew Sunday would be a good day for it. I'd read in the New York Times about a couple of bolognese recipes almost a year ago that changed my view of the stuff -- elevated it in some way. Ever since, I've been trying to perfect my recipe. This Sunday's attempt was no different...except that I was working with Cotton and I was terribly under the weather. I guess now is a good time to point out that I'm not necessarily going for a traditional bolognese -- just a tasty variant on classic bolognese.

Cotton minced up some onion, garlic, carrot, celery, and herbs and spices (probably oregano, basil, red pepper) and sauteed it in a bit of olive oil. I would have used butter, but whatever. Next, she added the meat. We had just under 3 lbs of 'meatloaf mix', which, at my grocery, is equal parts beef, pork, and veal. I don't think you can brown the meat properly if there are onions and whatnot in the pan, and I think browning of the meat is absolutely essential to a great bolognese. Nevertheless, we cooked down the meat and I added milk -- maybe 2 cups. I cooked that until the liquid was gone and then added white wine -- maybe 1 cup -- and the liquid and juice from 2 large cans of plum tomatoes. We reduced that down until nearly gone, then added tomato paste and fried it up a bit until it got dark and rusty. I should mention that this took about 2 hours just to get to this point. Then we added the diced tomatoes that produced the juice mentioned earlier, as well as two cans of crushed tomatoes. Yes, we were going for leftovers.

If I was cooking on my own, I would have browned the meat and removed it, sweat the vegetables, added the paste and fried it, then put the meat back in, then the wine to deglaze, then the milk. I'd reduce that, add my plum tomatoes (diced and crushed) with their juices and reduce the whole mess. This time, it didn't matter because I CAN'T TASTE ANYTHING due to my Cold.

Tragically, the sourdough Cotton and I made did not rise. Luckily I had some whole wheat bread from yesterday on hand, but I was hoping for lots of extra bread for stuffing. (This coming weekend is family Thanksgiving because Cotton and I missed real Thanksgiving.) I'm trying to rehabilitate my starter in hopes that I can make more bread soon.

Photo credits: avlxyz