January 2007 – Page 2 – The Kitchen Illiterate

Homemade Pasta, or The Messiest Cooking Project Ever

Fresh Fettuccini

Last night we decided to embark on the messiest cooking project I believe I’ve ever undertaken: making fresh homemade pasta. Of course, we couldn’t be satisfied with just one big batch of fettuccini or spagetti, oh no. We decided to make three kinds of pasta, fettuccini, and two kinds of ravioli. Yes, two. We were going to go all the way.

Mr. X was doubtful about making pasta without a food processor, but I refused to let lack of machinery stand in my way. After all, people made pasta without a food processor for hundreds of years. If their hands were good enough, then dammit, so were mine! As it turned out, the dough ended up just the right texture for rolling, and wasn’t very difficult at all. It was, however, very messy, and anyone who knows me knows that I’m not always so good with messy. I soldiered through the gloppy flour-covered hands and squishy liquidy ravioli fillings, though, and we ended up with a pretty awesome dinner.

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Sugar High Friday: Scharffen Berger and Sourdough

Scharffen Berger Sourdough

I have been missing San Francisco like crazy lately. More than usual, in a fierce, more yearning kind of way. What, you wonder, could that possibly have to do with Sugar High Friday?

I’ve never before entered any of the many food blogger contests, and it seems unusual, even to me, that my first would be one centered around sweets, seeing as I’m not such a sweets kind of person. But when I saw this month’s theme, Chocolate by Brand, I instantly thought of Sharffen Berger, and San Francisco, and that sense of longing that comes upon whenever I think of San Francisco this time generated something like an idea.

When I was in college one of my favorite indulgences was dunking buttery pieces of sourdough toast into hot chocolate. It sounds weird, I know, but holy crap it tastes awesome. The butter and the chocolate are a perfect complement, and set off by the tang of the sourdough bread….uhhnnnhhh, you don’t even know.

So my idea? Capturing San Francisco and that awesome combination into a sweet and savory snack. What do people think of when they think of San Francisco (besides its total awesomeness)? Sourdough bread and chocolate.

Of course, most people would think of Ghirardelli, the quintessential San Francisco chocolatier for over 150 years. Ghirardelli Square is a constant attraction for tourists, and everyone knows: San Francisco chocolate = Ghirardelli. But the thing is, Ghirardelli isn’t just San Francisco now, its pervasive. You can get Ghirardelli in any grocery store anywhere in the country. Nothing about it anymore speaks to me of San Francisco. But Scharffen Berger?

Scharffen Berger doesn’t have quite the illustrious history of Ghirardelli, but, like many things, its relative anonymity gives it a special kind of lustre. Of course, its anonymity may be short lived, but its tastiness I’m sure will not be. This is some pretty superb chocolate.

But combined with sourdough? All I can say is don’t judge until you’ve tried.

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Whatever’s in the Pantry Pasta, or Cannellini Broccolini Pasta

Cannellini Broccolini Pasta

It has been a bit of a rough week for the kitchen. Around about Tuesday I realized that I was completely broke, AND had a nearly bare pantry. And the combination of winter, evening darkness, and a job I don’t exactly love put me in the mood to do nothing much but sit on the couch, reading Harry Potter and drinking hot toddies. But tonight I knew I would have to figure out the sustenance question eventually, and cobble together some kind of meal from the random remnants on hand.

I actually love this kind of ramshackle cooking. I’ve devised some pretty interesting meals based solely on what was at hand. I’ve also experienced some dinner disasters, but we dont’ need to speak of those. I will just say, stay away from any beet-garbanzo-spaghetti-feta combinations.

So what was in the pantry tonight? I still have those anchovies. In fact I’m beginning to suspect that they are reproducing, alone at night in the refrigerator, because it doesn’t appear I ever have fewer anchovies. I have a can of diced tomatoes, and a can of cannellini beans. I have some slightly bedgraggled looking broccolini, and I think, yes, that this might make a meal. Of some sort.

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The Dogwood Cafe

The Dogwood

The Dogwood Cafe is a JP staple, and I’ve been eating here since I moved to Boston, amost three years ago. I crave the broccoli cheddar poppers, their brick oven pizzas are creative, and almost never disappoint, and they offer Anchor Steam on tap. So why do I so rarely even remember that it’s there when trying to think of a place to eat dinner?

I honestly have no answer to that, other than, perhaps, location: The Dogwood is at the very end of the Orange Line, at Forest Hills, on the Washington Street/Hyde Park Ave side of the station–a place I very rarely am. It should be more often remembered, though, and I’m glad I thought of it last Saturday night.

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Gnocchi with Mushroom Sausage Ragu

I bought pre-made gnocchi at Trader Joe’s last week, and had been wondering all weekend what to do with it. This ragu is, yet again, bastardized from another recipe, this one from Martha Stewart’s Everday Food. Say what you will about Martha, I do have a bit of a weakness for this magazine. And this was a great partner for the gnocchi–rich and really full of flavor, and thick enough to coat the gnocchi, but not too heavy or creamy or fatty.

It took a bit longer than most things I cook, but wasn’t difficult at all, and was well worth the extra time. I’m curious how different it would taste made as the original recipe suggests, without the wine, and with bacon instead of sausage. I also feel like it’s a bit of a cop out, to write about gnocchi when using the packaged kind, but I’m not quite ready to make my own gnocchi. Regardless, this ragu would probably also be awesome with any other kind of pasta, or even over chicken or steak or something (probably not so much over fish, though).

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Saturday Morning at the Brewery

Mini beer

Since the last time I took the Sam Adams Brewery tour, here in JP, it’s gotten a few write ups, become more popular, and been revamped a bit, formalized and fancified just a little. No more standing in puddles of beer and water while someone yelled about beer makin’ over the clanging sounds of, well, beer makin’. Now they have a special presentation area, and microphones, and…alright, it wasn’t really too different from the past, it’s only been polished a tiny bit more. It is still an especially excellent reason to come out to JP. Continue reading Saturday Morning at the Brewery

The Ubiquitous No-Knead Bread

The Bread

Yes, yes, yes, everyone and their mother has made the Jim Lahey/Mark Bittman No-Knead Bread. Everyone has written about it. I have already made the bread three times, so what the hell am I writing about it now for? Well, because I didn’t write about it before. I didn’t even have a food blog when the recipe was making the rounds, and I think we’ve already covered that I’m a bit of a joiner.

What’s bumming me out now, though, is the stupid New York Times. I know Mark Bittman wrote a follow up article, full of tips and hints and changes he’d heard from other cooks around the world. I read it weeks ago, but because my mind is a sieve, I couldn’t remember what any of those tips and hints were. And the New York Times wants me to pay $5 for the privilege of reading it again! Those bastards. I am not paying $5 to read it again. Does anyone remember any of those tips and changes? I’m sure I could spend some time scouring the interwebs, but it would be nice if I had them all in one place…

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Steaks with Blueberry Sauce

Steak with Blueberries

I saw this recipe in one of the newly acquired Williams-Sonoma cookbooks, and was instantly intrigued. But it just seemed so summery. There are no blueberries in January! Using frozen was an option, but it just didn’t seem right. After all, this is the time for squash, and beef stew, and casseroles. Not blueberries.

Then the weather in Boston suddenly got summery. Well, relatively summery. I mean, I still had to wear a coat and gloves, but it’s something like 60 degrees out right now, which is pretty damn summery for January. And I figured I might as well run with it, and push the summer envelope by cooking up some blueberries.

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Baristas my ass…

I can’t believe I never noticed before. Well, I guess I can believe it, because it’s not as though I frequent Starbucks. I’m pretty much only in them a few times a year, when I get the ubiquitous Starbucks gift cards for Christmas. This morning I took one of those Christmas gift cards and went to get myself a double short nonfat latte (or whatever the Starbucks lingo is for that), and that’s when I saw them. The fake espresso machines.

There are no group heads. There are no portafilters. There is no filling and tamping and no real pulling. It really is McSpresso. The complete mechanization of what I considered, after several years of pulling espresso, to be something of a beautiful coffee art. It was the final push that sent me into Starbucks hatred.

I started calling Starbucks the Evil Coffee Empire when I was in high school, but I always maintained at least small good feelings about the place for three reasons: They pay their employees decently, give them benefits, and teach them the fine art of brewing a wonderful coffee beverage. So what if they also teach them to add a bunch of sugary, caramely, whipped creamy crap to those beverages–at least they were also learning the ancient art, the craft of pulling espresso.

Except they’re not. Not learning the art anyway. They might still be getting good pay and benefits, but whatever. It is totally a McJob, requiring no skill and no learning, and no craft. They just push a button! And then pour some poorly foamed milk on top. (Of course, I’m feeling an inner conflict because my cousin has been working at Starbucks for years and I’m sure she is not a skill-less worker. She would probably argue the opposite of what I’m saying here. Or maybe not.)

Not like this is some kind of massive moment of disillusionment. I’ve never been a Starbucks fan. It was just a weird, weird moment, and a little bit soul crushing, to realize that even espresso could be machined.

Fettuccini with Spicy Broccolini

What I really wanted to cook tonight was Orecchiette with Spicy Broccoli Rabe, but the useless hippie mart across the street, of course, had no broccoli rabe. Nor orecchiette. So some substitutions were in order. The impetus behind the meal had nothing to do, after all, with the broccoli rabe (and only a little to do with orecchiette…I love orecchiette), but rather more to do with getting rid of the leftover anchovies in my refrigerator.

So dinner quickly became Fettuccini with Spicy Broccolini. Broccolini is awfully fun to say.

I’m not actually sure why I wanted to cook a dish for the sole purpose of using anchovies. Despite the pleasing puttanesca experience, I’m still not sure I’m an anchovy person. When I opened up the contained they’d been living in for the past month, the smell wasn’t one that made me immediately think, “Yum, I can’t wait to eat those!” And when I pondered this recipe all day, I just kept thinking it seemed too simple, too basic.

Of course, there is something to be said for getting back to the basics where pasta is concerned. I’m in the middle of reading Buford’s Heat right now, and I keep thinking of the refrain, the pasta is what’s important, not what’s on it. Not like my Barilla boxed pasta really deserves odes or anything, but the point is that I’ve been thinking a lot lately about learning the basics, and developing a taste for the simple, easy pasta dishes that focus on just one or two ingredients. That mindset made the idea of eating pasta that was really nothing but broccolini and some anchovies a little more palatable.

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