Fava Bean Pasta

Wine:
Stefano Farina Barolo 2001
Saracina Mendocino Blanc Sauvignon Blanc 2003

Bea came over for dinner. At Lucques Restaurant we had a great salad and decided to make one like it for a starter. The Salad was made from Belgium Endive, We couldn’t decide on the correct Feta Cheese to use, so we used two different Feta cheeses (goat and sheep - both French) we added Pitted Black Olives and Pixie Orange slices. We made a lemon and olive oil dressing. It was great!

The main course was Fava Bean Pasta. This particular version was exceptionally good. Cathy sautéed the onions for an extra long time and they were extra sweet. Fava beans are best in spring when they are young. You have to buy a lot (4 to 5 pounds) then remove the beans from their pod. This can take an hour to do and is best done on the patio while drinking wine. The beans are then par boiled for a minute or so and given a second peeling to remove the skin. This is really an easy and extremely delicious pasta.

For dessert we had German Chocolate Cake.


Bacon and Fava Bean Pasta
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1 lb. Linguini
1 ½ Onions
2 Garlic Cloves
2 Pounds fresh Fava Beans (start with about 5 pounds pods)
½ Cup White Wine
½ Pound Bacon
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Hand full of fresh chopped sage

1. Prepare the fava beans by removing all beans from the pod. Then blanch beans for 1 minute. Then peel the skin from the blanched beans. Discard the skin.
2. Chop bacon and sauté but not too crisp
3. Remove bacon from pan, pour off bacon fat
4. Add olive oil and sauté onion and garlic till soft and translucent
5. Add wine, boil till almost all evaporates leaving ¼ cup of liquid left in pan
6. Using wooden spoon scrape and deglaze the pan retaining the brown bits from the bottom of the pan in the liquid
7. Add chopped sage, peeled beans, and bacon and sauté until hot
8. Toss with cooked pasta and add grated parmesan cheese

Serve and enjoy

Grilled Asparagus, Lentil Pasta

Wine:

Kosta Browne 2007 Rose of Pinot Noir
Newton 2002 Unfiltered Chardonnay

Bea joined us for dinner.

We had recently eaten at Osteria Mozza and had a wonderful starter that we wanted to replicate. It was Grilled Asparagus with Burrata Cheese, Brown Butter and Hazelnuts.

The interesting thing for us is that Nancy grilled the asparagus on her Panini Maker. We had never used it to grill vegetables. She said that you coat the asparagus in olive oil before grilling. We tried it and it worked! Make brown butter and add the hazelnuts to warm. The asparagus grilled with beautiful hash marks. It was very easy. Place the grilled asparagus on the serving plate, top with the Burrata brown butter with hazelnuts and sprinkle some sea salt. Delicious!

For the next course we had a lentil pasta that we love. We had picked up a large hunk of the end of a prosciutto from The Cheese Store of Silverlake and have been using pieces of it. We made a Pasta with Lentils and Prosciutto Sauce. It is delicious. It is from Cucina Simpatica by Johanne Killeen & George Germon. We highly recommend this dish!

For dessert we had Little Cakes from the Cake Monkey Bakery.

Pasta with Lentil and Prosciutto Sauce
================================

Ask your butcher for an end piece of prosciutto. Usually these pieces are less expensive, and they are fine for this sauce.

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 stalk celery, diced
1 carrot, scraped and chopped
1 large onion (4 to 5 ounces), peeled and diced
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
One 3-ounce piece prosciutto or pancetta, chopped (1/2 cup packed)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
8 ounces (1 heaping cup) lentils ^
1 red onion
11/2 pounds imported spaghettini or linguine fini
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut up

1. Heat the olive oil in a small heavy stockpot and add the celery, carrot, diced onion, garlic, jalapeno, red pepper, prosciutto, and salt. Gently saute, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft and aromatic, 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Add the lentils and 5 cups of water, bring to a boil, and simmer until the lentils are soft but not mushy and falling apart, 18 to 22 minutes. The sauce may be completed to this point and chilled in the refrigerator until ready to use.
3. If you have refrigerated the sauce, heat it slowly over a low flame. Bring 5 quarts of salted water to a boil in another large pot, and chop the red onion for garnish.
4. When the lentil sauce is hot, drop the pasta in the water and boil until it is still quite firm, 4 to 5 minutes.
5. Drain the spaghettini in a colander, then add it to the sauce with the butter. Toss the pasta in the sauce for 1 to 2 minutes until al dente. Serve very hot, topped with the chopped red onion.
SERVES 6 AS A MAIN COURSE

Going Green

Wine:

Little James’ Basket Press Gigondas

We continue on our exploration of recipes from Indian Home Cooking by Suvir Saran and Stephanie Lyness. It is a very good cookbook. We really are enjoying the dishes. We hope to eat at Saran’s restaurant in New York City: Devi.

We made two new dishes. The first dish was Ground Turkey with Spinach and Whole Spices (Turkey-paalak ka keema). It is amazing we had never cooked with ground turkey before. I was surprised at our local market they actually sell two varieties of ground turkey: Ground Dark Meat, Ground White Meat. We of course, bought one of each! The dish has lots of spices, yogurt, spinach and dried fenugreek leaves (thank god for our local Indian Market). The fenugreek and spinach gives the dish a green color. It is very good, not hard to make and easily reheats.

For the second dish, we made Cardamon-Roasted Cauliflower adapted from American Masala: 125 New Classics From My Home Kitchen by Raquel Pelzel.
The cauliflower flowerets are roasted with lots of spices and onions. It is a very tasty dish! We had purchased a new mortar and pestle from American Masala. It is specially crafted to grind spices. It has a very wide Pestle that keeps the spices from popping out of the mortar. This was our first time to use it. It works!

We made rice to go with the dishes.

We really like the idea of learning how to cook a whole new cuisine.

We will make both of these dishes again.

For dessert we had Banana Cream Pie from Clementine. The bananas are appropriate for an Indian Dinner and the Cream was soothing after the spice of the Indian Cooking.



Cardamom-Roasted Cauliflower
=======================
Adapted from American Masala: 125 New Classics From My Home Kitchen by Suvir Saran with Raquel Pelzel (Clarkson Potter/Publishers, October 2007)
Serves 8
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing baking dish
3 cardamom pods
3 dried red chiles (optional)
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1 head of cauliflower (2 1/2 to 3 pounds), cored and broken into medium florets
1 medium red onion, halved and thinly sliced
Kosher salt for sprinkling
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish or large gratin dish with olive oil and set aside.
Using mortar and pestle, grind the cardamom pods, chiles, coriander, cumin and peppercorns until fine. Transfer the spices to a large bowl and mix with the olive oil. Add the cauliflower and onions and toss to coat. Transfer the vegetables to a baking dish and roast until they’re tender, about 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and serve.

Spring Peas are Here!

Wine: Little James Basket Press – Gigondas

One of the best indications of the arrival of spring is the appearance of young fresh peas at The Hollywood Farmers Market. When they appear we quickly decide to make Risi-E-Bisi. It is a wonderful Italian dish that is like a cross between a risotto and a very thick soup. The key to making the dish is great peas. We purchased the peas on Sunday and shelled them. We then prepared the stock that we would use on Tuesday. We use the recipe from Giuliano Bugialli: Bugialli’s Italy.

For the Salad we had Burrata Cheese and Jamon Iberico, a cured ham from Spain that we picked up from The Cheese Store of Silverlake. We dressed the salad with walnut oil and balsamic vinegar.

We then had the Risi-E-Bisi made with pea stock.

For dessert we had a Ginger Snap Cookie that are available at The Cheese Store of Silverlake. They are chewy and delicious!

Spring is here!



RISI E BISI
=========

Rice and Teas Venetian Style
Makes 6 servings

FOR THE BROTH:
1 pound snow peas or, if using fresh peas for the dish, 1 pound of the pods of the peas
16 cups cold water 1 medium-size carrot, scraped and cut into 2-inch pieces
1 medium-size stalk celery, cut into large pieces
1 very small clove garlic, peeled
5 sprigs fresh Italian parsley, leaves only
Coarse-grained salt

FOR THE RICE:
4 ounces pancetta or prosciutto, in one piece
1 medium-size cipollotto (Venetian white onion) or yellow onion, cleaned
4 Tablespoons sweet butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium-size clove garlic (optional), peeled
15 sprigs fresh Italian parsley, leaxas only
1 pound very small, sweet fresh peas or frozen "tiny tender" peas, not defrosted
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups raw short-grain rice, preferably Vialone or Italian Arborio
TO SERVE:
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) sweet butter
6 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
Sprigs fresh Italian parsley

Wash the snow peas or pea pods very well under cold running water. In a large pot bring the cold water to a boil with the snow peas or pods, carrot, celery, garlic, and parsley over medium heat. While boiling, add coarse salt to taste, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer for 50 min¬utes. Strain the broth and discard all the vegetables.

Finely grind the pancetta or prosciutto in a meat grinder and coarsely chop the onion on a cutting board. Place the butter and olive oil in a medium-size casserole set over low heat. When the butter is melted, add the pancetta or prosciutto, onion, and garlic clove, if used. Sauté slowly for about 15 minutes, then add the parsley and mix very well, then add the fresh or still frozen peas. Season with salt and pepper. Raise the heat to medium, add 1 cup of the vegetable broth, cover, and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the garlic and discard. Pour in 7 ½ - 8 cups of the broth and when it reaches a boil, add the rice. Mix very well, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer for 18 minutes. Be sure to have enough broth in the casserole for the rice to absorb to cook completely, with a tiny amount of liquid left; the final texture should be something between a real risotto and i thick bean soup. Remove the casserole from the heat, add the butter and cheese, and mix very veil. (Mantecare—to churn—is the word used to describe the movement of absorbing the butter ind the cheese into the rice.) Serve with the Italian parsley.