February 11, 2015 by chefpaulette

Hearts For Your Valentine (or for YOU)

Heart Tarts

Valentine’s Day can be fun, warm, and exciting…or major stress. Sweethearts stress over WHAT TO DO that is EXCEPTIONALLY romantic. And loners can’t bear another Kay Jewelers ad on TV.

My advice? Relax. If you love someone, you’re loving them every day. Just because they SAY this is the BIG day of love you don’t have to stand on your head over it. Just be together. That should be plenty. If you’re not with a sweetheart, then this is the day to love YOURSELF. Give yourself a gift. Treat yourself with tender care.

In any case, a nice easy heart-inspired sweet red dessert may be just the thing. Here’s mine. Mini-Heart-Tarts. They’re smile-producingly cute. Small bites of tasty pleasure. And tickle you while you bake.

Start with a defrosted sheet of puff pastry. And 2 heart cookie cutters…1 bigger than the other. Mine were 2 inches and 1.5-inches (borrowed from my mom’s cookie cutter collection).

cutting out the hearts

Don’t have hearts? Find 2 other shapes, one smaller than the other. Doesn’t have to be hearts; this is your day to shape as you please. Cut out 2 larger hearts, then cut out a smaller heart from the middle of one of the larger hearts.

smaller heart

Brush egg wash on the larger heart and place the cut-out/stencil-looking larger heart on top so you have a small heart-opening. Brush the top with egg wash. Brush the little cut-out heart with egg wash, too.

hearts on sheet pan

Place them on sheet pan. Cut up some strawberries into small pieces, and/or raspberries, add some sugar and mix up in a mixing bowl…

Cut-up strawberries

Fill the smaller heart opening with your berries…

ready to bake

Sprinkle some sugar on top of each. Bake for about 15 minutes until golden in a 375 degree oven.

baked heart tarts

The border will puff up and the little hearts will puff up, too. Serve as is or add a dollop of whipped cream over the berries, and top with the little heart. A sprinkling of powdered sugar looks nice, too.

A heart for your heartthrob, a heart for a pal, a heart for your mom or sister, or dad or brother, a heart for you. Keeping the love pouring in all directions.

I Heart You

Strawberry Heart Pastries (makes about 8)

8 strawberries, or 12 raspberries, or combination, cut into tiny pieces

2 teaspoons sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed

1 egg, beaten for egg wash

1 2-inch heart cookie cutter

1 1.5 -inch heart cookie cutter, or smaller

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix the berry pieces with the sugar until well combined.

Lay out the puff pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Using the larger cookie cutter, cut out 2 hearts. Using the smaller cookie cutter, cut a heart within one of the larger hearts, leaving a border all around. Brush the whole large heart with egg. Place the heart with the cut-out over the large heart lining it up the borders to fit exactly on top. Brush top with egg. Fill open heart cut with pieces of strawberry. Place on parchment lined sheet pan. Brush tiny heart that you cut out with some egg wash. Place next to large heart on sheet pan. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Sprinkle the pastries lightly with sugar. Bake for about 15 minutes until golden.

Serve tiny puff pastry heart with each larger pastry, Optional: add a dollop of whipped cream.

February 5, 2015 by chefpaulette

Peas, Roman-Style

Rome Umbrella Pines

Give me anything Roman-style and I’m happy.

Food, architecture, culture, coffee, personality, shopping, cafes, trattorie, character…just the feel of the air, even that makes me happy. The sound of the traffic. The feel of the cobblestone streets (the stones they call sanpietrini). The fountain around most corners. The markets. Yes, si, si, si.

Campo Dei Fiori Market

So peas Roman-style are equally alluring. I learned this from a professor of mine when I went to school in Rome. It was common to trade recipes while passing in a hallway between classes. Eating is a frequent subject. I say trade recipes, but I really mean was told recipes. At that point in my life I had few to trade, but I was all ears for anything…Roman.

Cafe in Rome

It’s an easy recipe and whenever we make it in my classes (or at private cooking parties) people LOVE it. I use frozen petite peas, but if you’ve got your hands on fresh by all means. I imagine regular size peas–frozen or fresh– work just as well, but I’m a petite pea fan (must be from my childhood days when peas came from the Le Sueur can).

Peas, Roman-Style

Peas, Roman-Style

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion, cut into thin half-moons

1/4 lb. pancetta, diced, or torn into small pieces

1 lb. petite frozen peas (you don’t have to thaw them first)

1/4 cup dry white wine or dry vermouth

salt to taste

Heat the olive oil in a medium or large sauté pan. Add the onion and pancetta and cook until onion is softened and pancetta is cooked thru. Add the peas. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer (if it isn’t already simmering). Add the wine or vermouth. Let evaporate. Season with salt & pepper. Cook for a few minutes more (5ish). Finito.

sanpietrini in Rome

January 29, 2015 by chefpaulette

Classic Bolognese Sauce – A Recipe

Classic Bolognese Sauce photo by Jen McCarter

When a classic is a classic, let’s keep it a classic. I’m all for experimentation. But after the new-fangled dust settles, let’s go back to homey goodness of what definitely works.

Bolognese Sauce. It’s classic version varies slightly but the usual suspects are still hanging around making sure the taste remains superb.

We recently made Bolognese sauce with fresh-made spinach fettuccine in a class of mine. Oh happy day.

Start off with that trio of bottom-flavor goodness: diced onion, carrot, celery…

Amie and I talking soffritto photo by Jen McCarter

…AND some minced pancetta.

first ingredients photo by Jen McCarter

Heat a little olive oil in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and pancetta…sauté until softened…

soffritto cooking

Lindsay sauteing

Now it’s time to add the meat. Ground veal is the traditional ingredient. We added 1 lb. ground veal and 1/2 lb. ground beef.

ground veal and beef

Add it to the cooking soffrito and break up the meat into small pieces as you stir…

Lindsay breaking up meat

Cook meat until it loses its raw color…

browned meat

Next comes the dry white wine or dry vermouth — about a cup…

pouring in the vermouth photo by Jen McCarter

Cook until wine or vermouth evaporates. Now add the other liquid ingredients. We added a 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes and about 2 cups chicken broth…

add tomatoes & broth

Season with salt & pepper and bring to simmer. Cook uncovered for about an hour or more until the liquids mostly evaporate and the sauce thickens.

cooked Bolognese sauce

We made some fresh made spinach fettuccine (looking for that recipe? let me know!) to go with our Bolognese sauce…

making fresh fettuccine photo by Jen McCarter

Spinach Fettuccine w Classic Bolognese Sauce

Bolognese Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 celery stalk, minced

2 carrots, minced

1 small onion, minced

2 slices pancetta, coarsely chopped

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef or a mixture of beef and veal

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

1-2 cups chicken broth

¼ cup heavy cream or milk (optional)

salt & pepper to taste

In a medium heavy saucepan heat the olive oil. When hot add the celery, carrot, and onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the pancetta, cook another 3 minutes. Add the beef/veal and cook, breaking up the clumps until no longer raw. Add the wine. Cook until almost evaporated. Add the tomatoes and broth. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a slow simmer and set heat to low. Let simmer for an hour or two until the liquid has reduced. Add cream and simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

Bonnie serving up the pasta

Thanks to Jen McCarter for some of the photos!

January 23, 2015 by chefpaulette

Gorgonzola Acorn Squash – A Recipe

You really don’t have to do much with acorn squash. At least that’s what I think. I like the taste of it. Just as is. I used to flavor it with butter and maple syrup. Now I’ve got gorgonzola taking over and making acorn squash a rock star.

Here’s how:

Cut squash in half. Scrape out seeds and stringy stuff. Place cut-side down on a foil-lined sheet pan. Add a little water to pan, about a 1/4-inch. Bake at 400 for 40-45 minutes until a paring knife easily pierces and flesh feels soft.

Baked Squash Just Out of Oven

Flip over cut-side up.

Squash ready to stuff

Season with salt, pepper, and a little hot pepper.

Seasoned squash

Add some crumbled gorgonzola. (If you like add some butter and a pinch of breadcrumb, too.)

Crumbled gorgonzola in your squash ready to bake

Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for another 10 minutes until cheese melts.

Tasty cooked squash

Eat with a spoon. Half a squash per person. Your own personal squash (half).

Eat it with a spoon

Gorgonzola Acorn Squash

1 acorn squash, cut in half, seeds removed

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

salt & pepper to taste

Pinch hot pepper

1/4 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese

2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

drizzle of olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Line a small sheet pan (with at least 1-inch sides) with foil. Place the cleaned acorn squash cut-side down. Pour a little water in the pan to make a not too deep puddle. Roast squash for about 45 minutes until tender (test by poking a paring knife into flesh). Remove from oven and gently turn squash halves over making cut side up. Season with salt & pepper, add a little hot pepper. Add 2 tablespoons of butter to each half. Sprinkle with gorgonzola, then breadcrumbs. Drizzle with olive oil. Return to oven for about 10 minutes until cheese melts and breadcrumb is golden.

January 16, 2015 by chefpaulette

When Meat Loafs. (A recipe.)

Meat Loaf

So is it only Italians who put mashed potatoes in their meat loaf? (Let me know.)

I put mashed potatoes in my meat loaf because my mother puts mashed potatoes in her meatloaf and she does it because her mother-in-law (actually it was my dad’s stepmom and she was from Sicily) put mashed potatoes in her meatloaf and so that’s how my dad liked it and so that’s how my mother made it. (Mashed potatoes gives your meatloaf a nice, tender-soft consistency.)

potato and onion about to be in maetloaf

potato and onion about to be in meatloaf

I also put in onion, but dice it and cook it till soft in a little water first (got that habit years ago from David Rosengarten’s Dean & DeLuca Cookbook meatloaf recipe). Then drain the onion and add to the mixture.

All my other ingredients are favs and/or what happens to be hanging around the refrigerator and looks like a good meatloaf addition. (In today’s case: gorgonzola cheese, parsley, and hoisin sauce. Hoisin is good in any ground meat shape including meatballs and hamburgers, think: Chinese-spare-ribs-flavor.)

today’s meatloaf ingredients

I love deep flavor condiments like hoisin. I also added Dijon mustard and sriracha.

some choice condiments for meatloaf

I’m sure you’ve got some goodies to add, too. (Worcestershire sauce, ghost pepper sauce, ketchup, BBQ sauce, horseradish, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, and ____????) Go on. Load it in. The meat’s loafing, not you.

meatloaf mixture

Meatloaf (my style) (for today anyway)

1 baking potato, peeled and cut into small pieces

1 small onion, peeled & diced

1.5 lbs. ground beef

1 egg

1 bunch parsley, minced

1/2 cup crumbled gorgonzola

2-3 tablespoons, Dijon mustard

2-3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

1-2 tablespoons sriracha sauce

salt & pepper to taste

3-4 strips pancetta

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium saute pan heat about an inch of water. Add the diced onion and cook until softened. About 3-4 minutes. Drain and let cool. Put the cut up potato in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Cook till potato is soft, about 7-8 minutes. Mash potato, let cool.

In a large mixing bowl, break up the chopped meat. Add the egg, parsley, gorgonzola, condiments, cooled mashed potato & onion. Mix well. Season with salt & pepper. On a foil-lined sheet pan, shape the meat into a “loaf.” Drape strips of pancetta on top. Bake in oven until deep brown and pancetta is crisped, about 45 minutes.

Then eat it. (Any leftovers? Meatloaf is even better the next day.)

meatloaf, half-eaten, with stainless cake knife (why not?)

January 8, 2015 by chefpaulette

45-Minute Minestrone Soup Recipe

Minestrone Soup

45-minutes. Hearty homemade soup.

I LOVE soup. I love hot tea. I love hot espresso (w milk and sugar–call it a cortado). I love drinking straight broth. And green, earthy vegetable cooking liquid just after the cooking is finished.

There is something restorative about soup. It makes you feel human again. It’s relaxing. It literally warms you up inside. (Well, if not physiologically, then certainly experientially). Spooning hot soup into your mouth makes you feel like you’re finally doing something right.

This morning I wanted a good homemade soup. But I only had 45-minutes. And I knew this would work in that amount of time. I was excited to prepare and cook it. And then, of course, eat it. (Best part.)

I started with carrots, an onion, and celery. Dicing, slicing, and mincing…

carrots, celery, onion

Then sautéing in a little olive oil…

sauteing

When the vegetables get a little softened (about 3-5 minutes), I add some broth, either boxed or canned or homemade (about 2-3 cups), and a 15-oz can of petite-diced tomatoes OR dice some fresh tomatoes and add with their juices.

diced tomato

When that comes to a simmer add about 1/3 cup of small cut pasta like pastina, ditalini, orzo, acini di pepe, or small farfalle.

Pasta shapes

Let soup return to a simmer and add a 15-oz can of cannellini beans…

cannellini beans

I happened to have some turnip greens, too. (This s the kind of soup that loves whatever vegetables you’ve got.) I love turnip greens and loved the opportunity to get greens into the soup and zingy ones at that (no timid spinach here).

turnip greens

I cut the leaves into bite-sized pieces and stirred them in.

simmering minestrone soup

Season with salt & pepper and cook for 10 minutes or more. Serve with a little grated cheese.

Quick Minestrone Soup

Molto buono! 🙂

December 2, 2014 by chefpaulette

Savory Spare Ribs from Brooklyn

West 11th Street, Brooklyn

Now I’m getting a little silly with Google maps and their wild way of getting you an image of a particular building. Snapshots from my past appear with a few key strokes (plus my solid memory of addresses!).

The building in the photo above is the first house I ever lived in. It’s on West 11th Street in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn. Those two windows on the first floor were my bedroom. It was a railroad apartment…each room right next to the other in a long line. My bedroom, led into my parents’ bedroom, led into the living room/dining room, led into the kitchen and then continued down a long hallway to the bathroom.

My Aunt Mary and Uncle John lived upstairs. They weren’t really my aunt and uncle but that’s how I knew them. They were friends of my parents — I assume they met because they lived upstairs. But my Aunt Mary became a mentor to my mom (who was a new bride, a new mom) and showed her recipes, gave her tips, and was, in general, there for her.

Mary and John were Sicilian. So the recipes followed suit, but they were also somehow influenced by this New World, this New York, this Brooklyn. Every recipe of Aunt Mary’s is wonderful. And each has lived within my family for years and years and are still reliable favorites.

Here’s her spin on spare ribs or baby back ribs. We made these recently in a cooking class with a menu of Aunt Mary recipes!

Ribs-Aunt Mary Style

Braised Pork Ribs w Mustard & Brown Sugar

1 rack of baby back ribs or spare ribs, cut into 2-3 bone pieces

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup vinegar, divided

2-3 bay leaves

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

2-3 teaspoons mustard

salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degree F.

Season ribs with salt & pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan. Brown ribs until golden on each side. Mix a couple of cups of water with half the vinegar. Pour over ribs and add bay leaves and some hot pepper. Let simmer partially covered for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile mix together the remaining brown sugar and vinegar with the garlic and mustard (add a bit more of any of these ingredients if you lean that way). Season with salt & pepper. Lift out ribs from the cooking liquid and transfer to a foil-lined sheet pan. Coat ribs with the sauce. Cover loosely with foil and bake in oven for 20-30 minutes until tender. Cut ribs into single pieces, pour any remaining sauce over them and serve.

Ribs-Aunt Mary Style

Deceptively AMAZING!

Here’s my class who are now Aunt Mary Recipe experts (and enjoying all)! We also made Aunt Mary’s Baked Rice w Mushrooms & Celery, and Vanilla Cupcakes w Chocolate-Espresso Icing.

Cooking Class for Aunt Mary Recipes

November 19, 2014 by chefpaulette

Where My Spaghetti Frittata Came From

My Apartment Building in Trastevere

I just entered the address I lived at in Rome and got a street-view image from Google. That is so wacky!

I lived there many years ago with a Roman woman named Enrica (at first she was Grazia, but then changed her name to Enrica). She became like a sister to me. Enrica grew up in Rome then moved out of her parents’ house when she was 17 to live on her own. In those days (and maybe even these days) nobody did that. You leave your parents’ home when you get married. Even her brother who got divorced moved back in with his parents.

Enrica’s parents disowned her because of that independent move. But they eventually re-owned her. She was a suffering free spirit if you can imagine that. But we knew how to giggle together all night long.

We’d go on walks at midnight through Trastevere’s small streets. She’d know friends to visit at that hour and we’d enter homes with full, but quiet, parties in deep conversation, music playing, cigarettes smoking, giggling.

Enrica wasn’t an avid cook, but there are a few dishes she made without thinking that really stuck with me. Spaghetti Frittata is one of them.

Spaghetti Frittata

At first I couldn’t imagine that it could be any good. But one day she mixed up a couple of eggs with last night’s spaghetti (sauce and all), put it in a frying pan with olive oil and suddenly it turned into a round perfect “cake”…and the taste: oh, yeah…nothing crazy about this idea. Try it!!

Spaghetti Frittata

4-5 large eggs

about 2 cups leftover spaghetti, already sauced (any sauce)

¼ cup grated cheese (pecorino or parmigiano)

salt & pepper

4 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven broiler.

Lightly beat the eggs in a medium mixing bowl. Add spaghetti and cheese. Season with salt & pepper. Mix well.

Use a medium-sized skillet with a metal handle. Heat oil in skillet over medium high heat until hot. Add the egg mixture and spread out to evenly cover skillet. Lower heat to medium and let cook until the bottom is set. Place skillet in oven under broiler for about 4 minutes until golden.

IMPORTANT: remember to use a potholder when taking out the skillet…it’s easy to forget you have an oven-hot skillet and just grab the handle as if it was on the stove. After skillet is out of oven, leave pot holder on handle as a reminder.

Loosen frittata with a spatula and slide onto a dinner-sized plate. Cut in wedges like a pizza. Serve warm or at room temperature.

See what I mean?

Here’s earlier me in always-earlier-than-most-cities (by 2000 years) Rome:

with some nuns at the Trevi Fountain

donning my disguise in front of a garlic truck

November 2, 2014 by chefpaulette

What Makes This Water So Crazy?

The Aisle of Capri

Acqua Pazza. Translation: Crazy Water. It’s the name of an Italian fish dish. As in Pesce all’Acqua Pazza. I’d heard of it for years, read recipes, but never cooked or ate it until my traveling group to the Amalfi Coast cooked it up at a local class in Ravello.

Cooking Class in Ravello at Hotel Villa Maria

We used branzino in our cooking class at Hotel Villa Maria in Ravello. Fresh as fresh could be. Filleting the whole fish just before slipping it into the flavorful crazy water.

Our chef explaining the fish filleting process

Our chef explaining the fine points of fish filleting to me

I was intrigued through the cooking process and then majorly hooked from the first bite.

Crazy Water in Ravello

Fish in Crazy Water in Ravello

I had always thought the dish originated in the Veneto because Marcella Hazan seems to be the first Italian cook/chef to introduce it to the US (she lived in Venezia). But it’s really from Campania, and apparently became a very popular dish on the aisle of Capri in the 1960’s.

Story goes that fishermen used sea water with tomatoes and garlic to make a broth for cooking fish. Sounds crazy, no? Maybe cooking with sea water is. But the recipe that evolved from the idea is nicely seasoned fresh water.

At home I use cod or tilapia. But I think any firm fish would work perfectly.

Here’s how to make it for 4-6 medium-sized fish fillets:

In a deep large sauté pan add:

3-4 ripe tomatoes that have been cut into bite-sized chunks

3-4 garlic cloves, peeled & minced or rough-chopped

healthy handful of flat Italian parsley, rough-chopped

healthy pinch of hot pepper, i.e. red pepper flakes or aleppo

3-4 cups water

1/4 cup olive oil or more

Season mixture with salt & pepper. Bring to a boil, then let simmer, partially covered for about an hour. Let the water reduce a bit in the process. I add some lemon juice and lemon zest (from one small-medium lemon), but that’s not in the traditional recipe. I just like lemon!

When the crazy water has simmered and reduced a bit, the ingredients will blend into a beautiful taste and color. Season your fish fillets with salt and pepper, slip them into the broth, cover the pan and let them simmer gently till cooked through — about 10-15 minutes. Done!

Serve in medium (pasta) bowls: a fillet, a couple of ladles of chunky broth, and a slice or two of toasted/or warm/or crunchy bread (I use baguette).

So easy. So healthful. So tasty. And not crazy at all.

Fish in Crazy Water at Home (Tilapia)

September 24, 2014 by chefpaulette

What I Buy at Trader Joe’s – Part 1

You knew there would have to be parts to this story. No way you can list all that you get at Trader Joe’s in one sitting. Not only is the list long, but you’re bound to forget something.

Trader Joe’s is not my only go-to shopping food store. Publix is, really. But there are things at Trader Joe’s that you can’t get anywhere else. Well, you can (say, olive oil), but it’s not the same (olive oil).

When I picture myself shopping there I see a fast-moving bee-like dance bouncing from this shelf and that aisle like a fast-moving pinball game. If you see me there you might hear the pings and bells in my wake (watch out– full tilt is possible).

I anticipate my entrance. I know what I’m gonna see first. Bouquets and bouquets of flowers. From $3.99 or $5.99 or somewhere in that price vicinity you can go home with an armful of flowers and beam every time you pass the dining table or the kitchen counter or the bedroom dresser for the rest of the week.

My gotta-go-to areas: produce, cheese, frozen foods, aisle of olives-spices-beans-pasta-rice-oil, nuts & dried fruit (including popcorn, but more on that next time…I’m in a spell of not eating popcorn because so many people I know are breaking teeth on crunchy things and having high dental bills. I’ll wait till the scare passes to buy again Trader Joe’s (popped in) Olive Oil Popcorn…picture to follow eventually).

But here’s a typical $3.99 Trader Joe’s bouquet.

Trader Joe Flowers

Why these flowers are in a boot is a long story. Maybe another time…

Here’s a fav frozen food section item: artichoke hearts:

Trader Joe Artichoke Hearts

These FAR surpass anything you’ll get in a jar or a can. (Except the whole, chargrilled kind you find at counters in Italian supermarkets (in Italy) or sometimes here, too, but usually imported.) These are unflavored (not even that weird acidic taste that canned ones have). So you can do what you will with them. I usually…

RECIPE: Defrost and dry them with paper towels. Dredge them in seasoned flour. Shake off excess. Dip in beaten eggs and fry in a little oil until golden on each side. Try that. You will be FLOORED.

Also in the frozen food aisle: Shrimp Gyoza (Pot Stickers)

Shrimp Pot Stickers

For the longest time I refused to use the name “pot stickers”…I mean who made that up? Somebody having trouble making dumplings and they stuck to the pot? No reason for these to stick to a pot. Dumplings is a much friendlier (and appetizing) word. (Likewise, if I may mention one of my HUGE pet peeves when it comes to talking about food: “wash it down with____soda, wine, beer” WASH it down? I cannot hear that phrase without imaging the taste of soap. WHO “washes down” their food with a beverage? Extremely ICK.)

If you follow the directions on this package of Trader Joe’s Thai Shrimp Gyoza you will get perfect dumplings and no sticking. I make a dipping sauce of soy sauce and sweet chili sauce mixed together (maybe with a squirt of sriracha). It’s meal in a minute with transport-you-far-away exotic flavor.

These little guys hang on posts here and there throughout the store: sun-dried tomatoes:

Trader Joe’s Sun-Dried Tomatoes

I like these because they are NOT sott’olio which gives them a nice clean taste ready for anything you WANT to add. (You never know what a manufacturer’s oil is gonna taste like, and then they add other flavors you may not want plus some ingredients you can’t pronounce because they have to preserve what they put in the jar.) Ever have sun-dried tomato pesto?

RECIPE: In the bowl of a food processor add a package of sun-dried tomatoes, a garlic clove (peeled & coarsely chopped), a handful of favorite fresh herbs like basil, mint, oregano, and/or sage. Pulse till minced. Add some olive oil (1/4 cup?), salt & pepper. Pulse to smooth. Boil your pasta (capellini, spaghetti, or fettuccine might be nice). Place your pesto in the serving bowl and add a couple of spoonfuls of the pasta water (has pasta starch and salt and is a great “ingredient”) to loosen the pesto and make it more “sauce-y” then add your cooked pasta. Toss to coat. Sprinkle with grated parmigiano. Oh. So. Good.

And when I say olive oil, I mean this: I’ve used Trader Joe’s President’s Reserve Extra Virgin Olive oil for years. I use it for everything: frying, sautéing, salads, even a little deep frying (a little…an inch or two in a small pot to just fry up small things like little arancini, small chocolate mini-pies, sage leaves, impromptu tiny zeppoles…nothing large or long-frying with olive oil). I love this oil. I’ve tried others and come back. And for $6.99 a liter it’s a great buy (plus it’s a product of Italy).

Trader Joe’s President’s Reserve Extra Virgin Olive Oil

That’s just the beginning. There’s oh-so-much more. Stay tuned to future notices about my Trader Joe’s favs.

And in the meantime — let me know YOURS!

Chef Paulette

A little bit of Italy at home.

recipes

Hearts For Your Valentine (or for YOU)

Peas, Roman-Style

Classic Bolognese Sauce – A Recipe

Gorgonzola Acorn Squash – A Recipe

When Meat Loafs. (A recipe.)

45-Minute Minestrone Soup Recipe

Savory Spare Ribs from Brooklyn

Where My Spaghetti Frittata Came From

What Makes This Water So Crazy?

What I Buy at Trader Joe’s – Part 1

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