Meyer lemon spaghetti with goat cheese

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Dinner for one: Spaghetti with Meyer lemon and goat cheese

[Update: I originally wrote this post in 2010. It's now a decade later and much of the country is sequestered at home because of the current COVID-19 pandemic, including my family. I pulled out this recipe yesterday to share with my older son, who is across the country holed up in his apartment in Connecticut. I'm sending him a box of Meyer lemons from our tree so he can make this anytime he wants. Stay safe, friends, and STAY HOME.]

When I was young, single and living in New York City, I often ended the day with a simple bowl of pasta. I was working long hours in the publishing business, and while I did have a social life, there were plenty of 14-hour workdays when I'd arrive home at 11pm starving, exhausted and fed up. On nights like that, a bowl of hot pasta with olive oil and garlic was a good friend indeed.

My husband Michael is a protein kind of guy, so my bowl of pure carbohydrate comfort doesn't appeal to him. But today one kid was away on a playdate, and Michael and the other son had gigantic burritos for lunch. When dinnertime rolled around, I was the only one who needed a meal. And I needed a warm bowl of pasta.

This is one of the simplest, yet most delicious, pasta dishes I know. It requires only a few ingredients: spaghetti or angel hair, a lemon, some cheese, a splash of olive oil. If you're feeling fancy and have fresh basil (I didn't), slice it into thin strips and toss it in. Be sure to inhale deeply before you take the first bite - it adds significantly to the pleasure.

Meyer Lemon Spaghetti with Goat Cheese

Yield: 2 servings

Author: Erika Kerekes

Total time: 10 M

This fragrant, simple pasta dish requires only spaghetti or angel hair, a lemon, some cheese, and a splash of good olive oil. The best comfort food on the planet.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb spaghetti or angel hair pasta
• 1 Meyer lemon (you can substitute regular lemon, but don't use as much of the juice or it will be too sour)
• 1/2 cup grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano (parmesan) cheese
• 2 ounces fresh, soft goat cheese
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

How to cook Meyer Lemon Spaghetti with Goat Cheese

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water, then add the pasta. Cook until the pasta is al dente, and not a moment longer.
2. While the pasta is cooking, grate the zest of the Meyer lemon into a large bowl. Juice the lemon into the same bowl, then add the cheeses, olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a healthy grind of black pepper. Ladle a bit of the hot pasta cooking water from the pot into the bowl. Whisk everything together until it's smooth.
3. When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain it and add it to the bowl with the lemon mixture. Toss, grind on a bit more pepper, and eat. Makes dinner for two, or dinner for one plus tomorrow's lunch.

Created using The Recipes Generator

Arianna Trading Company organic tomatoes: A "good news, bad news" story

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GOOD NEWS: Last week I got to see my friend George Menzelos of Arianna Trading Company. George has been importing the most beautiful single-estate organic olive oil from Greece for a few years now, and this year he's also bringing in organic tomatoes, currants, and a sesame herb salt. George left me samples of all his products to inspire my cooking and, we hoped, a blog post or two.

BAD NEWS: After George's visit, I got buried in work, both for a new client and for Not Ketchup. A few days after I saw George, I was stuck in my home office until after 10pm. I didn't even have time to make dinner for my family.

GOOD NEWS: My 15-year-old son Emery decided to make dinner. He cooked up penne pasta with a rich tomato meat sauce. Emery even brought a bowl down to the office for me.

GOOD NEWS: That was the most delicious bowl of pasta I've ever eaten - not only because my child made it for me (what mother could resist the charms of that?) but because the tomato sauce was sweet, thick, and intense.

BAD NEWS: A few hours later I realized that I might have heard Emery say something like "I decided to make pasta because you had all these tomato products." I went to the refrigerator. George's tomatoes were gone. And on the drying rack I found this:

BAD NEWS: I hadn't taken any pictures and we'd eaten all the pasta. Hard to write a blog post without pictures.

GOOD NEWS: I found some leftover sauce in the refrigerator, so I photographed that instead. It was so delicious that I ate it the next day straight from the plastic container with a spoon. Cold.

GOOD NEWS: See the line above about "the most delicious bowl of pasta I've ever eaten."

Arianna's organic strained tomatoes will be available very soon - and when they are, I suggest you run right out and get some (keep an eye on the Arianna website to find out where to buy them). Here's what George says about his organic strained tomatoes:

Our organic heirloom tomatoes are hand-picked ripe from the vine, then peeled, seeded, and strained by mechanical means in an allergan-free facility. These GMO-free "true breed" tomatoes have been cultivated by the Gousiaris family in the village of Ilias in central Greece for over 100 years. It takes 5 kilos of tomatoes to produce about 1 kilo of our strained tomatoes, which are pasteurized in the jar the old-fashioned way. They are tomatoes your grandmother would love.

CONCLUSION: Emery's pasta was indeed a happy accident. I'm thrilled that I'm no longer the only cook in the family, but clearly I need to get better about labeling the food in the refrigerator if I need to keep it for blogging!

SmallBizLady Melinda Emerson's classic macaroni and cheese

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Melinda Emerson's old-school macaroni and cheese

Sometimes you get really lucky and you meet someone who inspires you, makes you think, and fills you with confidence that you are smart, wise (not the same thing), and capable.

And if the stars are all in alignment, said luminary happens to mention that she's got a kick-ass recipe for classic macaroni and cheese.

Last summer, I was that lucky person. Through a project for my former employer, I got to spend a day with author, New York Times columnist, consultant and small business guru Melinda Emerson, also known as SmallBizLady. And somehow, she made me feel like I was ready to conquer the world.

I can't tell you exactly what she did or said that gave me such a boost. A few raised eyebrows. Knowing nods. Conversations where ideas swam around, turned into concepts, and stood up as full-fledged action plans.

When I decided recently that I was ready to start my own business, it was in large part because of Melinda.

I don't think she knew how loud her voice was in my head after that day in Minneapolis last summer. But it was.

When I went out on my own, Melinda was one of the first people I reached out to. I asked for help, unable to offer anything in return. And she helped - by tweeting links to my new website, letting me write a guest post on her blog, and sending supportive and encouraging tweets just when I needed them most.

Velveeta and Kraft Singles: That's what Melinda's dad brought home from work, so that's what Melinda's mom used in her macaroni and cheese

This week, as a tiny token of my admiration and appreciation, I made Melinda's macaroni and cheese, a recipe she dictated loosely over a sweaty dinner in Minnesota. Yes, there is processed cheese food in the ingredients. Melinda's dad worked for Kraft. Velveeta and Kraft Singles - that's what Melinda's dad brought home, so that's what Melinda's mom used. And this week, to honor Melinda, that's what I used too.

This is the macaroni and cheese I remember from my childhood. Sophisticated palates may not like it, but if you grew up in the 60s and 70s in a house where no one ever attempted a roux, this will taste like your youth.

P.S. Hey, Melinda, if you're reading this - thanks. For the recipe and the courage.

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Classic macaroni and cheese from SmallBizLady Melinda Emerson

by Erika Kerekes March-13-2013

An old-school, classic macaroni and cheese recipe with Velveeta, Kraft Singles and Ritz crackers. If your mom cooked like my mom, this will taste like the macaroni and cheese of your youth.

Ingredients

• 1 pound elbow macaroni (small or large)
• 12 slices Kraft Singles American cheese
• 1 pound Velveeta cheese product, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 6 Tablespoons butter
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups milk
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 8 Ritz crackers, crushed

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Line a baking sheet with foil and put the baking dish on the baking sheet.In a large pot of boiling water, cook the macaroni until al dente, about 2 minutes shy of the stated cooking time on the package. Drain.Line the bottom of the pan with 6 of the Kraft Singles. Add 1/3 of the macaroni. Scatter half the Velveeta cubes on top. Repeat with another layer of Kraft Singles, macaroni and Velveeta. Finish with a layer of macaroni. Break the butter into 4 chunks and put one at each corner of the pan.In a large measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar, salt and pepper. Pour carefully over the macaroni in the baking dish; the liquid should come up to the edge of the pan and mostly cover the macaroni. Cover the top of the casserole with the shredded cheddar cheese, then the Ritz cracker crumbs.Bake the macaroni and cheese for 45-50 minutes. The casserole should be bubbling at the edges and golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and let sit 15 minutes before serving so the macaroni absorbs some of the excess liquid.

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 50 mins Total time: 1 hour 10 mins Yield: 10-12 servings

Spaghetti carbonara with smoked turkey

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I know some of you may find this hard to believe, but I made my first spaghetti carbonara last night.

It would have been a classic carbonara, except that I forgot to buy pancetta, and even if I had bought it I might have had to throw it out, because our main refrigerator was on the blink for more than a week, and we ended up losing a lot of food.

So instead I used some precooked chopped bacon (the kind that comes in a bag at Costco) and the meat from a smoked turkey leg I picked up on sale last week and remembered to move to the downstairs refrigerator before it spoiled. I cut the smoked turkey meat into chunks and sauteed it with the bacon while the pasta boiled.

Guess what?

It was really, really good. So good that if it weren't completely outrageous I might go buy some pancetta today and make it the authentic way tonight.

Pretty sure I can't justify that though. I should wait at least another day, right? Must eat at least one vegetable  tonight at dinner.

[Evening update: I should have made the carbonara. Instead I tried to be healthy and was shredding brussels sprouts on a mandoline and cut off a good chunk of my left thumb. If I'd stuck with carbonara, we'd be up a few pounds but my thumb would be intact. Can't win for losing.]

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Classic spaghetti carbonara with smoked turkey

by Erika Kerekes October-24-2012

Classic spaghetti carbonara will never be light, but subbing smoked turkey leg meat for some of the pork gets you part of the way there without sacrificing much in the way of flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 pound dry spaghetti
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 smoked turkey leg, meat removed from bones, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cup grated parmesan, romano or Grana Padano cheese, plus more for serving
• freshly grated black pepper

Instructions

Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add the spaghetti and the salt and cook until al dente according to package instructions. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of the pasta water.While the pasta is cooking, heat a skillet and add the smoked turkey and cooked bacon. Saute the meat about 4 minutes, until the turkey chunks are browned and crisp on the outside. Add the garlic, stir, and turn off the heat until the pasta is ready. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and the grated cheese.When the pasta is al dente, turn the heat back on under the skillet and add the pasta and reserved pasta water to the skillet with the meat. Toss about 1 minute, until the pasta is coated with the juices (okay, the fat) from the pan. Turn the hot spaghetti mixture into the mixing bowl with the eggs and cheese. Using tongs or two large spoons, toss the pasta vigorously to coat it with the egg mixture. Don't skimp on this step - the hot pasta will cook the egg on contact, but if you let it sit too long in one position it will end up more like scrambled eggs and less like the silky result you want. Grind on a lot of black pepper, toss again, and serve immediately, passing more grated cheese at the table.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 30 mins Yield: 4 generous servings

Macaroni and cheese with kale

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I have a theory about kale: Add it to any recipe and your recipe automatically qualifies as health food.

Even macaroni and cheese.

I made an unexpected discovery the day I added shredded sauteed kale to a pan of gooey, creamy macaroni and cheese: I actually liked the mac and cheese more with kale in it.

It might be because I felt somewhat more virtuous about eating it. It did taste awfully good, though. I'm going through a "where have you been all my life?" phase with kale. It's seeing a lot of play in my kitchen lately.

What do you put in your macaroni and cheese? ('cause I know you can't just play it straight...)

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Macaroni and cheese with kale

by Erika Kerekes July-16-2012

Add kale to any dish and it automatically qualifies as health food - right? Besides, shredded kale actually makes macaroni and cheese tastier.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch Tuscan kale (also called dinosaur kale)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 pound whole wheat macaroni, penne or ziti
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 3 cups milk (whole, lowfat or fat-free)
• 4 cups white cheddar cheese, shredded (or substitute gruyere, fontina or any combination of cheese you prefer)
• freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs or panko breadcrumbs

Instructions

Strip the kale leaves from their stems and cut the kale leaves into very fine ribbons. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and add the kale. Saute the kale about 6-8 minutes or until significantly wilted. Set aside.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Fill a large pot with water, add the salt, and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and cook 2 minutes less than the package directions. You want the pasta very al dente because it will continue to cook in the oven. Drain the pasta and put it into a large mixing bowl. While you're cooking the pasta, drop the butter into a medium saucepan. When the butter is melted, add the flour and whisk together to make a roux. Cook the butter-flour mixture about 1 minute to get rid of the raw flour taste, then slowly start adding the milk, whisking constantly. Bring the milk mixture to a simmer, making sure there are no lumps (the more you whisk, the fewer lumps you'll have). Add the shredded cheese and whisk until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth. Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and mix well. Add the kale and a generous amount of pepper and stir again. Spray a large baking pan with cooking spray (9x13 works, or any casserole dish that looks to be the right size). Turn the pasta mixture into the baking dish and sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the top.Bake the macaroni and cheese about 40 minutes, until the casserole is bubbly and the breadcrumbs are nicely browned. Serve immediately.

Details

Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 40 mins Total time: 1 hour 10 mins Yield: 8-10 servings

Spaghetti with green garlic butter

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Spaghetti with green garlic butter: A simple springtime dinner

It's starting to feel like spring here in southern California. My roses are budding. It's still light outside when I get home from work. The moms at school are chatting about spring break plans.

And green garlic has reappeared at the farmers' market.

If you've never tried green garlic, I recommend it. It's the young garlic plant, pulled to thin the rows before the garlic bulbs swell and harden underground. Looks like an overgrown green onion. You use the whole thing from root to tip. It acts like a leek but tastes mildly of garlic. It's delicious.

And then mix up some green garlic butter, a supremely useful condiment. I like it spread on warm bread, but it's also darn good tossed with al dente spaghetti. Add a sprinkle of grated cheese if you like, but not too much - you don't want to overwhelm the soft, sweet scent and flavor of garlic.

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Spaghetti with green garlic butter

by Erika Kerekes February-27-2012

Green garlic - the young garlic plant, pulled to thin the rows in early spring - combines a mild garlic flavor with the texture of green onion or leek. Look for it at farmers' markets or gourmet grocery stores and snatch it up when you see it: The season is short but well worth celebrating.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound spaghetti, linguine or other long, thin pasta
• 1/4 cup green garlic butter (click for recipe)
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, finely grated (optional)

Instructions

Cook the spaghetti according to package instructions. While the pasta is cooking, put the green garlic butter in a large bowl. Add a few spoonfuls of the pasta cooking water - the starch in the water will combine with the butter to make a nice sauce.When the pasta is cooked al dente ("to the tooth," or just cooked through), drain the pasta and add it to the bowl. Toss well so the green garlic butter coats every strand. Season with a little salt and a lot of freshly ground pepper. Sprinkle with the cheese, if using. Serve immediately.

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 10 mins Total time: 30 mins Yield: 4 servings

Spaetzle with truffle butter

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Spaetzle with truffle butter (photo: Lynne Hemer)

I put fresh spaetzle on my Trufflepalooza 2011 menu last summer with some reservations. 

Truffles pair well with pasta, but I'd already done spaghetti with truffles (2009) and truffled mac and cheese (2010). Spaetzle, a simple pasta-like egg dumpling, seemed like a good next step. My Hungarian mother-in-law makes spaetzle often and my husband loves it. I even own a spaetzle maker.

Why the concern, then? Superstition. Twenty-plus years ago a longtime friend flunked her final exam at a prestigious culinary institute because of spaetzle. It was the last thing she was asked to make, and she blanked. She's over it by now, but clearly I'm not.

I sucked it up and made the spaetzle, and I'm glad. The homemade spaetzle with truffle butter were a huge hit at Trufflepalooza. The chewy little dumplings are boiled first to cook them through, then tossed in a hot saute pan with truffle butter to crisp the edges and get that musky truffle flavor into all the little crevices.I served the spaetzle on their own, but they'd make a great side dish paired with steak, roast chicken or any other simply prepared protein.

You can make your own truffle butter or buy it at a gourmet market (I like Sabatino brand truffle butter). You don't need to buy the most expensive truffles to make truffle butter - canned or frozen truffles work fine if the fresh ones are out of reach.

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Spaetzle with truffle butter

by Erika Kerekes December-30-2011

Fresh egg dumplings dressed with truffle butter make an elegant side dish. If you don't have a spaetzle maker, use a potato ricer with a large-hole insert or a colander.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• 4 Tbsp truffle butter
• 1 fresh white or black truffle (optional)

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.While the water is boiling, whisk together the flour, eggs, milk, salt and pepper. You'll end up with a batter that's somewhere between pancake and muffin batter in thickness.Turn the flame down so the water is simmering. Put a dollop of batter in the holder of the spaetzle maker and run it back and forth over the holes. Bits of batter will drop through into the boiling water. This part takes some practice (or a lot practice if you're a spaetzle dunce like me). If you're using a colander, use a spoon to push the batter through the holes. Use the spoon to scrape the outside of the colander to get all the batter off. The spaetzle will be knobby and irregular. Simmer the spaetzle about 3 minutes; they don't take long at all. Fish the first batch out of the pot with a slotted spoon and put them in a bowl. Add a little olive oil and toss to keep the spaetzle from sticking together. Cook the rest of the spaetzle in batches, adding more oil as necessary.When all the spaetzle has been boiled, heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the truffle butter and the cooked spaetzle and toss gently until the spaetzle is crisp along the edges. Serve immediately, grating fresh truffle over the top if you've got one.

Details

Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 40 mins Yield: 8-10 servings (as side dish)

Pasta with shredded zucchini

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There are nights when only a bowl of pasta will do. We all have them. Long days at work. Tired bones, tired minds. Pasta fills me up and brings on that calm evening glow. I always sleep well after a pasta dinner.

In the summer I often make a quick pasta sauce with shredded zucchini, tomato sauce and a splash of half-and-half. I try to get the ratio right: less pasta, more zucchini, the perfect balance of comforting carbs and good-for-you veggies. A bowl of pasta on the couch, feet up on the coffee table, brain shifting from busy day into sleepy night. Ah, the power of carbohydrates.

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Pasta with shredded zucchini

by Erika Kerekes August-10-2011

The shredded zucchini melts into the sauce, making this dish perfect for any silly zucchini-phobic family members.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound fusilli (or another curly, twisty pasta)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 large or 1 small onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 medium-sized zucchini, shredded or grated
• 2 cups tomato sauce (not chunky; canned or jarred works fine)
• 2 Tbsp half-and-half
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan, Romano or Grana Padano cheese

Instructions

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook the pasta as directed on the package.While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute 3-4 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, 30 seconds - don't let the garlic brown. Add the zucchini to the skillet and cook for a few minutes until softened but not mushy. Add the tomato sauce and half-and-half to the skillet, stir to combine, and turn down the heat. Let simmer while the pasta finishes cooking.When the pasta is done, drain it and add it to the skillet. Turn off the heat and gently mix the pasta into the sauce. Let the pasta sit about 30 seconds on the warm burner, then turn the pasta into a serving bowl. Season with salt and pepper, then sprinkle the grated cheese on top. Serve immediately.

Details

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 20 mins Yield: 4 servings

Spaghetti with squash blossoms

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The other day my husband and I were both working at home. He works at home most of the time; I work at home when I have conference calls scheduled straight from early in the morning until after noon, because by the time I'm off the phone it doesn't make sense to spend time driving to the office.

Another take on pasta primavera: Spaghetti with dandelion greens and green garlic

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Remember pasta primavera? Ordinary cut-up vegetables in a goopy cream sauce, as served in every Italian restaurant in which I ate growing up on Long Island? I am here today to tell you that I reject that version of pasta primavera and have decided to reinvent it. This is the true pasta of spring.

My pasta primavera recipe uses one of the most emblematic Italian ingredients of spring: dandelion greens. Italians are famous foragers. Remember the scene in Under the Tuscan Sun (a great foodie book, by the way) where the author discovers a bent-over nonna picking weeds on her property, just as she'd done every spring for decades? You can do this, too. Just let your lawn alone for a while and you'll likely find some of these:

Resist the urge to pull them out. Do not pour chemicals on them. Let them grow and prosper. And then pick the leaves and put them in pasta.

My pasta primavera recipe also includes green garlic, an ingredient whose appearance elicits cheers and actual jumping up and down. You'll find it at farmers' markets, gourmet grocery stores, and possibly Asian markets in the early spring. Green garlic looks like a very large green onion - in fact, it's the young version of the garlic plant, before the bulb matures and swells. Its flavor is milder than bulb garlic, and you use the whole thing, including the greens. If you can't find green garlic, use regular garlic, but do look for the young green garlic at this time of year. Many people use it in soup, but we prefer green garlic pizza.

Pasta with weeds and sprouts - my husband was quite skeptical. But chopped and sauteed with pancetta, tossed with steaming spaghetti, and topped with freshly grated cheese and a drizzle of olive oil, my pasta primavera won him over.

P.S. I think I'm in trouble. Emery, my 12-year-old son, just looked over my shoulder and said "Hey, when did you make that?" Um...on Sunday morning, when you were visiting your grandparents, darling. Note to self: Buy more dandelion greens.

Pasta primavera with green garlic and dandelion greens

• 1/2 pound spaghetti
• 4 ounces pancetta or bacon, diced
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 large bunch dandelion greens, washed and chopped
• 2 stalks green garlic, washed carefully (it can be gritty) and chopped
• 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp olive oil
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook until al dente. Drain immediately.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta or bacon and cook 2-3 minutes, until the fat starts to render and the edges of the bits of meat start to brown. Add the onion and saute another 1 minutes, just until the onion starts to soften.

Now add the dandelion greens and the green garlic, stir, and cover the skillet briefly to let the greens wilt. Dandelion greens are hardier than spinach but more delicate than kale; you won't need to cook them too long. By the time you've drained the pasta, the greens should be ready.

In a large bowl, combine the pasta and the dandelion mixture. Add the grated cheese and olive oil and toss well. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Leftover pasta frittata, finger food for your Super Bowl party

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Still looking for Super Bowl recipes? There's nothing better for a party than a simple pasta frittata.

It's essentially a pancake made out of leftover cooked pasta, sauce and all. You mix the leftover pasta (any shape) with eggs and cheese, then fry the whole mess up in a hot pan. Brave souls will try to flip it using the upside-down plate trick - I used to do it - but lazy bums like me stick the whole thing under the broiler for a few minutes to cook the top. Cut it into wedges, serve hot or warm or cold, eat with fingers. This is a-one party food, picnic food, and especially midnight snack food (trust me on this one).

Spaghetti frittata with wild mushrooms and bacon

Pasta pancake (frittata)

• 4 cups leftover pasta, with sauce and add-ins
• 6 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan or romano cheese
• Salt and pepper
• Anything else you think might work: crumbled bacon, diced cooked chicken, leftover cooked vegetables, capers, chopped anchovies, a few sun-dried tomatoes....
• 2 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat the broiler on high with the rack on the second-highest shelf.

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Heat an ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Swirl in the olive oil, then dump in the pasta-egg mixture. As it sets, lift up the edges with a spatula so more of the egg can run underneath.

When the bottom is set and browned, put the skillet under the broiler. Check it after three minutes to make sure it's not burning. I usually leave it in about five minutes, but it will burn easily, depending on the strength of your broiler.

When the top is golden brown, remove the pan from the oven and let the frittata sit in the pan for about 10 minutes. The residual heat will cook the egg all the way through, if it hasn't already, and letting it cool will allow it to set up a bit before you take it out and cut it.

After a little bit, slide the frittata onto a board. Cut into wedges and serve.

Pasta salad with pesto and cherry tomatoes

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This pasta salad with pesto is my go-to summer potluck recipe for three simple reasons:

1. It's easy.
2. It takes full advantage of the season's best ingredients.
3. Everyone loves it. 

I make my own pesto (here's my favorite pesto recipe), but once or twice I've fallen back on store-bought pesto, and the pasta salad is still almost as good.

If you like your pasta salad more complicated, by all means add more stuff - little balls of mozzarella, capers, a few chopped bell peppers, olives, all those would go very well with the pesto and cherry tomatoes. I prefer the plainer version. Why? See number 1 above.

Pasta salad with pesto and cherry tomatoes

• 1 lb dried fusilli, rotelle or other short, curly pasta
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups pesto
• 2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
• handful of basil leaves, for garnish

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water and cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Drain the pasta, put it in a big mixing bowl, toss it with the olive oil, and let it cool about half an hour. You don't want the pasta to be hot when you add the sauce - the pesto will lose its vibrant green color and edge toward brownish. That will happen soon enough on the buffet table, but you might as well start the dish out with every advantage. 

When the pasta is mostly cool, add the pesto and mix well. Scatter the cherry tomatoes and basil leaves on top of the bowl. Serve at room temperature.

Baked ziti with sausage for a crowd in the wilderness

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Every year over Memorial Day weekend, our friends Rachel and Eric gather seven or eight families for a camping trip on their property near Santa Barbara. They call it "glamping" - tents and sleeping bags are involved, but so are executive port-a-potties, a dishwashing sink, an outdoor shower, a gas barbeque, and a whole lot of good food and wine. Glamorous indeed, or at least as glamorous as it can be when you're sleeping on air mattresses on the grass.

However, I don't camp. Categorically. It's my line in the sand and I'm sticking to it. I'm from Long Island. Call me a princess and I'll own up. Too old to go outside in the middle of the night to pee. Too fussy to go three days without a proper shower. I. Don't. Camp.

Fortunately, I am married to a man who thinks my refusal to camp is one of my best qualities. Unfortunately, our kids would love to go camping. I keep telling them that they need to make friends with kids whose parents do like to camp. They are welcome to go camping with anyone else's parents. But we're not going.

Fortunately again, Rachel and Eric's group is willing to let us come up for a day during the weekend and pretend we're part of the camping posse. They didn't even make fun of us this year (to our faces, at least). Because I've discovered that the more delicious food I bring with us, the happier they are to see us arrive, and the less they care that when bedtime rolls around we're getting into our car and driving back down the coast to our comfy beds in L.A.

Families take turns supplying the meals for the weekend. This year we drew lunch duty. Lunch for 40 people - luckily, that doesn't scare me. The baked ziti I made drew compliments and held everyone over until dinner. At which point, three roasted turkeys emerged from La Caja China, and mashed potatoes and gravy appeared on the barbeque. These people really know how to camp.

The recipe below feeds 8-10 people. Multiply accordingly.

Baked ziti with sausage

• 2 lbs ziti or other short tubular pasta
• 1 lb mild Italian sausage (I'm partial to the house-made chicken Italian sausage from Bob's Market in Santa Monica, but any Italian-style sausage will do)
• 1 box frozen chopped spinach, defrosted
• 1/2 cup pesto sauce (prepared or homemade)
• 2 cups tomato sauce (prepared or homemade)
• 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan, romano or grana padano cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the ziti and cook until al dente. It's important to keep the pasta on the undercooked side, because you're going to cook it again in the oven, and you don't want it to turn to mush. Drain the pasta and turn it into a large mixing bowl.

Put the sausages on a foil-lined sheet pan and slide the pan into the oven. Cook until the sausages are cooked through; the time will vary depending on how thick your sausages are, but somewhere between 20 minutes and half an hour should do. Cut one sausage open to make sure it's cooked inside. Let the sausages cool at least 10 minutes. Slice the sausages into chunks and add them to the pasta. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees.

Squeeze as much water out of the defrosted spinach as you can. Add the spinach to the bowl with the pasta and sausage.

In another mixing bowl, whisk together the pesto, tomato sauce, ricotta, salt and pepper until smooth. Add this mixture and 1 cup of the shredded mozzarella to the bowl with the pasta. Toss everything to coat the pasta well.

Turn the pasta mixture into a casserole dish that's been coated with cooking spray. Top with the remaining mozzarella and the grated parmesan. Bake the ziti uncovered 30 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the whole thing is hot and gooey.

Here's the great thing about baked ziti: You can assemble it ahead of time and let it sit in the refrigerator for up to three days before baking. You can even assemble it and put it in the freezer. Or you can bake it and then put it in the freezer. Also, everyone loves it.

Images: Dinner at Ado in Venice, California

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Chef Antonio Mure in the tiny kitchen at Ado

I'm working on an article for my LA Cooking Examiner column that will feature a recipe from Antonio Mure, the chef and co-owner of Ado in Venice, so I went there tonight with fellow food writer Gerry Furth-Sides to take some pictures. I thought I might get to taste the dish for the article, a lovely tagliatelle with zucchini, teardrop tomatoes and walnut pesto. But I wasn't expecting chef Antonio to send over an entire dinner! If you're reading this, chef, thank you. It was delicious.

So what happens when two food writers sit down at a lovely restaurant together? They share their food, and they take pictures. Here's what we had:

I started with an escarole salad with fresh figs, toasted almonds and a balsamic vinaigrette. Chef Antonio peeled the figs because he says they look better that way, which I found interesting. The balsamic vinegar and the sweetness of the figs tamed the bitterness of the greens quite a bit - they were still sturdy and had a little bite.


Gerry got a lovely buffalo carpaccio with a wild mushroom salad - very tender. I'm not experienced in the ways of carpaccio, so I probably would have mistaken it for beef, but it was definitely buffalo.


We shared the two pasta dishes. The first, fresh homemade tagliatelle with fried zucchini, red and yellow pear tomatoes, roasted garlic, and walnut pesto, is the one for which I'll post the recipe in a day or two. I thought it was particularly interesting that chef Antonio deep-fried the zucchini moons in olive oil before adding them to the saute pan with the roasted garlic and tomatoes. Frying them first made them almost chewy, instead of the watery texture you get when you saute zucchini from raw. The walnut pesto was a simple paste of raw walnuts, olive oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and - oh darn - what was the last thing? Maybe a little cream? I'll have to call over there and check. [Update: cream, infused with dry mustard powder, rosemary and sage, plus garlic.]


The second pasta was extremely unusual: beet tagliatelle with a Taleggio cream and quail ragu. Let's begin with the pasta. Chef Antonio roasts the beets, purees them, and then dries the puree over low heat for hours to remove most of the moisture, so that he can add as little flour as possible to make the pasta dough. The Taleggio, a lovely aromatic Italian cheese, is carmelized in cream to lend an additional boost of flavor. And quail ragu - well, all I can say is, pity the poor sous-chef who has to spend hours deboning quail (which has an awful lot of bones) for this rich meat sauce. Worth it, but truly, hours and hours.

Oh, and chef Antonio finished both pasta dishes off with a special Sicilian olive oil. The squeeze bottle wasn't labeled, and I saw several around the kitchen, so I asked him how he knew which one was the Sicilian. "It's the smallest bottle," he said, "because it's so much more expensive than all the other stuff." Makes sense.


I'm not much of a dessert person, and less still of an ice-cream-frozen-dessert person, but the semifreddo with shaved chocolate and crushed torrone (an Italian almond nougat candy often made for Christmas) was outstanding.


The other dessert, a vanilla custard-like cream crusted with pistachios, was also quite good. I was very intrigued by the texture: It was thicker than a pudding, more dense than a flan, almost like a ricotta cheesecake filling, but it didn't taste cheesy.


And only after I got home and looked at all my pictures did I discover the big SMUDGE on the lower left quadrant of my lens. Disappointing, even though I'm far from a photographic perfectionist. But the pictures still tell the story.