FamilyFood

Pappardelle with Tartufata (Truffle sauce)

Tonight's dinner was a meal that came together in about 5 minutes once the pappardelle was boiled. 

Tartufata is definitely not something we eat everyday, but it makes such an easy and delicious pasta sauce (or bruschetta topping) that it's a no-brainer when you have guests or just want to cook something special for no reason.

I wanted tonight's dinner to be special because I had just been gone for 3 days at BlogHer and I wanted to make something yummy for my family (esp. after eating all that conference food.)

I used to bring tartufata back from Italy, but you can now find it in Italian specialty shops here in the states. To make the pasta:

• Cook 2 8-oz. packages of pappardelle until al dente. Drain and reserve about 2 tbsps of pasta water.
• Toss pappardelle with 3/4 of a stick of butter and 1/2 to a full jar of tartufata (depending on your taste).
• Use the pasta water to loosen the sauce if needed (using warmed cream is good, too.) Season with sea salt and fresh ground pepper.
• Top with grated pecorino romano and a sprinkling of finely chopped parsley. Serve at once.

Serves 4-5

Meal Planning Monday

It's not much of a menu this week as I'll be heading off to the BlogHer conference on Thursday...

• Mexican Monday—We had fish tacos for lunch so for dinner we had a big ole, "it's way too hot to cook" salad (3 different lettuces, avocado, cukes, tomatoes, lentil sprouts, sunflower seeds, feta cheese, and vinaigrette.)
• Tuesday—*I'm* going to the American Idol concert so the family's eating take out pizza.
• Wednesday—The night before I leave...maybe take out Chinese?
• Thursday—Sunday—I have no idea!!! Wheeeee!

...but we bought, like 12 ears of corn at the farmer's market this weekend.  Wonder when we're gonna eat that?

What are you cookin'?

Pelmeny and Spinach: A 20-minute meal

I often make this dish for our kids when my hubs and I have date night.  It comes together quickly and is really satisfying, to boot.

Cook one package of frozen pelmeny (delicious Russian "ravioli") in boiling water according to package directions.  Drain.  In the empty, still-hot pot drop in a couple pats of butter (or glugs of olive oil) and two big handfuls of washed baby spinach. Dump the pelmeny back in and toss until spinach is wilted. You can cover the pot for a minute if you want. Season with salt and pepper, top with grated cheese and serve. Dinner in 20 minutes.

Note: I can find pelmeny at my local grocery store, but if you can't, check your nearest Russian market.

Pasta with fresh white corn, heirloom tomatoes, and herbs

This is that salad that everyone makes in the summertime. I just love fresh (raw) corn, just off the cob, and summer tomatoes together.  When I want to make it into a heartier main dish or side, I add pasta to it, and perhaps some cheese (crumbled sheep's milk chevre is wonderful in this).

The tomatoes (especially the Green Zebras) were so outstanding that I didn't add cheese to it. I didn't want to take away from their sweetness.  I simply dressed the pasta with olive oil, salt and pepper and tossed it with the tomatoes and corn which I seasoned separately with salt, pepper, olive oil, and a splash of white balsamic vinegar. The final touch was the addition of freshly pick oregano and Italian and Thai basil, all of which I grow in pots on my patio.

We had company and I served this alongside grilled chicken paillard. It was a match made in heaven. It tasted so good sitting outside in our backyard sipping wine and chatting with our guest.  We had leftovers of both so I just chopped the chicken into the pasta and we ate it the next day for lunch.

Chicken Paillard on the grill

Thick chicken breasts make me gag. Especially when they are slathered in barbecue sauce to try and cover up their dry, stringiness. Bleck. I am definitely a dark meat kinda girl.

But—

I love chicken paillard (I've written about it before) which is just a fancy way of saying chicken that has been pounded uniformly flat, to about a 1/2-inch thickness. Parents: this is a great way to do chicken if you want to cook it quickly.  It couldn't be more kid-friendly.

The other night we had a friend over and did these on the grill. I marinated them in Eye-talian dressing for a couple hours after pounding them out and then cooked them for a couple minutes on each side. They came out moist and juicy and so tasty. A little squeeze of lemon and they are perfect.

Cheeseburgers with Sage Cheddar and Bacon (and lots of napkins)

I love writing about raw food and becoming vegetarian then following it up with a post about cheeseburgers.  I'm an unabashed Libra. What can I say?

Tonight we had grilled burgers topped with sage cheddar and bacon. The hamburger patties themselves were from Costco. They come in a huge pack and I divide them up and freeze them in 4's.  I really like the Costco hamburger patties (these are fresh, not frozen, and are located near the steaks) because they are so thick and so incredibly juicy. We've done them for friends and always get compliments. I just shrug and say, "Costco."  They don't need anything except salt and pepper.

To the burgers I added hunks of sage cheddar that I bought from a local maker at our neighborhood farmer's market. Then I topped them with thick-cut bacon (another reason to have ready-cooked bacon on hand), onions and lettuce. We like our burgers with mayo and ketchup, and for me, a squeeze of Sriracha.

Maybe tomorrow is vegetarian day.

Salad with all kinds of sprouts

After our trip to the farmer's market today (and after our amazing dinner at Junnoon the previous night where I had a delicious plum, mung bean sprout, and peanut salad—review coming soon), I was inspired to make this summery salad.

This salad is chewy and satisfying. It's the perfect "big bowl" meal salad.  My kids really loved this. I think it was the sprouted peanuts (the pink things in the photo).

Place the following in a large wooden bowl:

• 2 handfuls hearts of little gem lettuce
• 2 handfuls of sunflower sprouts
• 1 handful of spicy (or onion or radish) sprouts
• 1 handful of sprouted peanuts
• 1 handful of sprouted lentils
• a handful of heirloom cherry tomatoes, halved

Toss with your favorite mustardy vinaigrette. Add sea salt and pepper to taste. Serve at once.

Impulse Buys of the Week: Books n Bottles

I finally checked out our local Elephant Pharm, a Whole Foods-style drugstore.  I really shouldn't have because it was chock full of good stuff. Hence the impulse buys.

I am a sucker for cookbooks with cozy cover photos of people in the midst of a celebration (it's what drew my eye to Nigella's Feast cookbook—the first edition, the one without the Food Network branding). When I saw the cover of Raw Food, Real World staring out at me, I knew I would be bringing it home.  The raw food movement intrigues me, and it's a lot easier to read about it when the people doing the writing are former chefs that seem like normal people, not sanctimonious hippie freaks. Raw or cooked, it's a beautiful cookbook full of recipes that I will be cooking (and sharing here). ($37.50)

Who can resist the cheerful, charming designs on SIGG waterbottles? Apparently, not me. ($15-$20 ea.)

The infamous "black meat" (so good)

Here in Silicon Valley, Schaub's Meat Market's Fred's Steak (aka marinated bottom sirloin) is legendary for two reasons:

1. It's made from a secret recipe and the butchers will not tell you what it is.
2. It's pitch black because of the air drying and the marinade. It's so weird-looking that my husband has dubbed it "baby seal."

I can honestly say that when we lived in Portland, this was one of the things I missed eating (along with good Mexican and Chinese Portland. And don't even go there Portland. You gotta a lot of great things to offer up in your beautiful city from the best cocktails anywhere to the luscious porchetta at Pastaworks, but good Mexican and Chinese food ain't on that list. Trust me.)

Henyway, the steak is best done up on the grill. Because it's so black it's hard to know where the marinade ends and the yummy, smokey,crusty char begins. The butchers will give you exact directions on how to cook it.  I follow it to the "T" and have never been disappointed.  The one time I overcooked it, it was still yummy, but I missed the juicy red center.  I prefer it cooked medium, but anyway you slice it, it's going to be a winner. It's also a fun thing to bring to cook-outs since people that have never seen it before just stare at it wondering what it is.

If you ever find yourself at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, swing around the backside and visit Schab's. It's worth a visit even if you don't buy a thing.

Whole grain bread with P'tit Basque Cheese and Heirloom Tomatoes

Tonight is sandwich night, and to go with our creamy cauliflower soup, I was going to make open-faced ricotta (good ricotta, not that commercial, gritty Polly-O crap) sandwiches with heirloom tomatoes, but a wedge of P'tit Basque that I had forgotten about since before we left for Hawaii was calling to me. So the ricotta will have to wait until breakfast where it will get a drizzle of honey.

It's one of my favorite cheeses of all time. I'm particularly partial to sheep's milk cheese (maybe it's my Roman heritage) and I just love it's salty earthiness. Bunny loves it, too. She declared it "deelicious."

Tonight I cut it into thin slices and placed it atop chewy, toasted Ezekiel bread (also a fave of mine) with juicy tomatoes, a sprinkling of sea salt and fresh cracked pepper.