Last night's dinner turned out phenomenally well, a creamy mix of rigatoni and white beans. The most amazing part was the sauce naturally created from the starchy pasta and beans combined with browned garlic butter.
I intended to make this using penne but realized the penne I recently bought was very small for some reason. I wanted a larger shape and found a bag of rigatoni instead. I cooked it to al dente and drained, reserving about 1 cup of the hot pasta water.
In a large pan, I melted 4 tablespoons butter with 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil. I let the butter cook over medium heat until it bubbled and turned a light shade of brown, then I added a clove of minced garlic and 1 can drained (but not rinsed) white beans. Stir to combine and allow to cook for 1-2 minutes.
Add 3 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh sage and 1/2 cup sliced roasted peppers. Add the pasta to the pan and toss to combine. Add the reserved pasta water and stir pasta until the water is reduced. Season to taste.
The creamy bean texture combined with the browned butter made for a flavorful and wonderful sauce - with sage and garlic, you can't go wrong. Unfortunately, there aren't any leftovers ... mostly because I kept picking pieces of pasta out of the pan each time I walked through the kitchen after dinner. I really REALLY liked this.
Rigatoni, white beans and browned butter
3/4 lb. rigatoni*
1 can white beans, drained but not rinsed
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
1/2 cup sliced roasted peppers (from jar, packed in oil)
*I used about 3/4 of a 1lb bag -- I think you could round this up and use the whole pound.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Rigatoni, white beans and browned butter
Monday, February 18, 2008
Breakfast spaetzle with peppers and scallions
I've been thinking about spaetzle ever since reading a post from Francois-Xavier at FXcuisine. He made an amazing apple spaetzle as a dessert - it looks so good. It made me think about a trip I took with a friend to her hometown of Chicago when we were in college. Her Austrian grandmother made us all sorts of food including spaetzle served with a meat stew. It's one of those foods that isn't just a meal, it's a memory.
This morning I woke up inspired to make spaetzle for the first time. I enjoy making breakfast on the weekend, but this was even more special since I got to get my hands dirty.
Breakfast spaetzle
1 cup flour
4 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 roasted red pepper
2 scallions chopped
2 tablespoons butter
Place flour on a work surface and create a well in the center. Crack 2 eggs into well and add milk. Use a fork to whisk the milk and egg together, then slowly extend outward to work in the flour until a dough forms. 
I eventually gave up on the fork and use my fingertips. The dough came together in a matter of a minute or two. Give it a few kneads and form into a ball. Let it stand for 10-15 minutes. The dough becomes much softer and stickier.
Heat a shallow pan of water. There are tools
I tried using a slotted spoon to push the dough through and it wasn't very easy. I decided to take matters into my own hands (literally) and placed the ball of dough into my right hand. With my left hand, I pulled off a strip of dough about 1" long and allowed it to drop into the boiling water. The spaetzle turned out a bit larger than normal, but looked wonderful.
When they start to float, they are done. It took just a couple minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place into a bowl. I cooked the spaetzle in two batches. Next, heat a skillet and add the butter. Add spaetzle to skillet and turn to coat in butter. Fry until they begin to take on a little color, then add the scallions and roasted red pepper. Cook for another 2 minutes.
I didn't want to dirty another pan, so I cracked the 2 remaining eggs into the spaetzle water and poached for 3 minutes. Place the spaetzle on a plate and place poached eggs on top. Before eating, run your knife through the egg so the yolk oozes down into the spaetzle.
This made for a wonderful Sunday morning breakfast. It came together quickly and looked like it took much longer. The spaetzle are dense and chewy, just the way I like my pasta. The spaetzle texture makes it easy for the little guys to latch onto the butter (or other sauce you may put with them). The scallions and pepper gave just enough flavor without overpowering the spaetzle.
I'm going to play around with the spaetzle a bit further. It's versatile and would work in so many different preparations. I have a million ideas for how to use it in both savory and sweet dishes. I don't know where to begin first!
You might also like these posts:
Hittin' the vodka sauce
Are you looking at my buns?
Frenched eggs
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Casual fregola salad with meyer lemon confit and olives
It's such a crappy picture, but it tasted good. My camera woes will hopefully be behind me soon ... just waiting for a new lens to arrive next week. In the meantime, more mediocre pictures of food. But I digress.
How many of you have tired or heard of fregola? I've seen the name written in several ways: fregola, fregula, and fregole (as it appears on my bag) -- sometimes it is merely referred to as Sardinian cous-cous. Fregula is a small ball-shaped, toasted pasta from Sardinia typically cooked in a tomato sauce with seafood.
My mother had a recipe for it last year and we were able to locate the pasta in a gourmet food store. I can't even remember now what her recipe was ... but we used the pasta once. Obviously, it mustn't have been very good. I've had the bag sitting on my shelf ever since and decided to make dinner with it tonight.
The pasta is kinda cute, if pasta can be considered 'cute' -- little toasted balls that plump up, yet stay firm when cooked. I heated a bit of chicken broth in a pot then added the fregola and cooked for the recommended 8-9 minutes. I plucked out a little ball now and then to check the progress ... this isn't the sort of pasta you can throw against the wall.
I warmed up the remaining meyer lemon confit made earlier in the day. I drained the fregola and drizzled it with the confit, along with a teaspoon of the oil. I added a few sliced grape tomatoes, a chiffonade of fresh basil, and about a dozen small olives to the bowl and tossed it all together. Simple and colorful.
It smelled wonderful and I enjoyed the nutty flavor of the pasta alongside the lemony olive oil and basil. Even though the pasta is pretty hearty, the citrus flavor lightened the dish overall. I still have quite a bit of the dry pasta left, so will experiment further with it. I found a few ideas below.
More fregola ideas from other blogs:
Fregola Sarda
Fregola Sarda with Chicken and Roasted Baby Vegetables
Fregola Sarda with Pesto, Pinjur Topped Toast
Fregola Sarda with Zucchini and Pinenuts
Seafood Soup with Fregola
You might also like these posts:
Pasta alla Vodka
Poached egg with basil and meyer lemon confit
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Hittin' the Vodka Sauce (recipe)
This past year marked the first time we had our family Christmas dinner at a restaurant. Normally, we spend hours preparing the meal, but with two sets of parents visiting ... I opted to book a reservation.
We went to an italian restaurant named Il Fornaio (horrible service, so don't get me started). Fortunately, I ordered a pasta dish 'Pennoni alla Vodka', a creamy tomato sauce with smokey bacon over a large tube pasta. The sauce is slightly rich and a little tangy, with just a zing of vodka in the background.
Last weekend we had friends over for dinner and I thought the pasta dish would work well (i.e. quick and simple). I found a recipe that was similar to the dish I had at the restaurant. I tweaked it a little to add the bacon - you can't leave out the bacon. The end result was perfect and everyone loved it. Next time I might try a larger pasta, but otherwise I thought this was fantastic.
Pasta alla Vodka
1 jar marinara sauce
1 cup vodka
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 lb. smokey slab bacon (I used black forest bacon)
1 lb. penne pasta
This is amazingly simple. Place bacon on a cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes in a preheated 400 oven. Bacon should be cooked through and slightly crisped. Remove and let cool, then slice into 1/2" pieces.
Add marinara to a cooking pot. Use a stick blender to puree the sauce. Place over medium heat, add chopped bacon and vodka. Simmer for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions and then drain.
When sauce has simmered for 20 minutes, add parmesan and cream. Simmer for 3 additional minutes. Pour sauce over pasta and toss.
