Crushed Peas with Smoky Sesame Dressing

From Smitten Kitchen


1 1/2 pounds fresh peas in pods or about 1 1/2 cups already shelled or frozen and defrosted
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons tahini (sesame seed paste)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon paprika, smoked if you have it
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 scallions, thinly sliced
Toasted pitas, cut into wedges, for serving

Cook peas: Have ready a colander and an ice bath, and bring a medium pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Blanche peas for 30 seconds (if you like them with a real residual snap) to 1 minute (for a slightly more yielding pea) and drain them, then immediately shocking them in the ice water. Drain the peas again and pat them dry on a large towel.

Crush peas: Using a potato or egg-masher, muddler or meat pounder (be gentle!), lightly crush the peas. Aim for mixed textures, some left whole, most in halves and a few a little more broken up. Put them in a large bowl.

Make dressing: Whisk together tahini, yogurt, lemon juice, water, cumin, paprika and salt. You might be tempted to swap the water with olive oil but don’t do it — it makes a horrible curdled mess you will be sad to have to toss.

Assemble: Mix peas with about 3 tablespoons of the dressing, to start, then add more to taste. Sprinkle with scallions. Heap pea mixture on toasted pita wedges.

RESULTS:
You know, I didn't bother with the pita wedges, I just ate the peas. Possibly due to this, I ended up with about three times the dressing that I needed, which is ok because it turns out it makes a great salad dressing, especially as I've been in the mood for something creamy but didn't want to ruin a healthy salad by putting ranch on it.

Spaghetti with Lemon and Olive Oil [Spaghetti al Limone]

From Smitten Kitchen (including notes before recipe)

 This is one of those recipes that are almost better off without one — every ingredient can be adjusted to taste and the technique is just tossing everything about. I consulted a bunch of recipes but ended up being lured in by Cook’s Illustrated’s January 2011 version, as it had so much less heavy cream and olive oil than the others and the threat of bathing suits was a mere 48 hours away! But, I ended up not using the recipe as more than an outline; I didn’t think shallots belonged in the dish, I wanted more lemon juice and I didn’t care for their resting technique — the cheese just glued itself to the pot and not the noodles when I did this — the “toss, toss, toss!” method I used in last year’s Cacio e Pepe does a better, quicker job.

• 1 pound spaghetti or linguine
• Salt
• 3 lemons
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil , plus additional for serving
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 ounce finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 1/2 cup), plus additional for serving
• Ground black pepper
• Small handful fresh basil or arugula (what I used, deliciously, in a pinch) leaves, shredded

Cook linguine or spaghetti in well-salted water to your al dente tastes in a large, wide-bottomed pot. (You’ll have fewer dishes to wash if you use this pot to assemble the dish as well.)

While pasta is cooking, zest lemons until you have a little shy of a tablespoon of zest. Juice lemons — you’ll have anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 cup lemon juice.

Drain pasta, reserving 1 1/2 cups of pasta cooking water. Dry out your pot, then boil the olive oil, cream, zest and 1 cup of the reserved pasta water together for two minutes over high heat. Return pasta to pot and stir until coated. Add the cheese and 1/4 cup lemon juice and toss, toss, toss everything together. Add more pasta water, 1/4 cup at a time, if you’d like your dish a little looser. Quickly taste a strand of pasta and see if you want to add the remaining lemon juice (we did). Stir in basil or arugula and season generously with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately, drizzling individual portions with a bit of extra olive oil and sprinkling with extra Parmesan cheese.

RESULTS:
Love love love. Definitely making this one again. It's nice and spring-y, which is a nice change from the spaghetti with cheese and black pepper that I love to make, but which is much more winter-y. Some nice green peas tossed in there wouldn't be amiss, I don't think, and it would add a little more color.

mushroom bourguignon

From Smitten Kitchen

Serves 4

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 pounds portobello mushrooms, in 1/4-inch slices (save the stems for another use) (you can use cremini instead, as well)
• 1/2 carrot, finely diced
• 1 small yellow onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup full-bodied red wine
• 2 cups beef or vegetable broth (beef broth is traditional but vegetable to make it vegetarian; it works with either)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup pearl onions, peeled (thawed if frozen)
• Egg noodles, for serving

 Sour cream and chopped chives or parsley, for garnish (optional)
Heat the one tablespoon of the olive oil and one tablespoon of butter in a medium Dutch oven or heavy sauce pan over high heat. Sear the mushrooms until they begin to darken, but not yet release any liquid — about three or four minutes. Remove them from pan.

Lower the flame to medium and add the second tablespoon of olive oil. Toss the carrots, onions, thyme, a few good pinches of salt and a several grinds of black pepper into the pan and cook for 10, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for just one more minute.

Add the wine to the pot, scraping any stuck bits off the bottom, then turn the heat all the way up and reduce it by half. Stir in the tomato paste and the broth. Add back the mushrooms with any juices that have collected and once the liquid has boiled, reduce the temperature so it simmers for 20 minutes, or until mushrooms are very tender. Add the pearl onions and simmer for five minutes more.

Combine remaining butter and the flour with a fork until combined; stir it into the stew. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 more minutes. If the sauce is too thin, boil it down to reduce to the right consistency. Season to taste.

To serve, spoon the stew over a bowl of egg noodles, dollop with sour cream (optional) and sprinkle with chives or parsley.

RESULTS: 
Pretty tasty. I don't know that I've ever had beef bourguignon, so I can't compare, but now I want to try it. I think the quality of the wine is pretty important, though. There's a real strong winey taste, even though the alcohol cooks off, so if you use, say, a box wine (guilty), then you end up tasting it and then think, "wow, this could have been so much better."

SPRING!!

Panzanella of Bell Peppers

Another one from Chef Matt:


This salad is one that often has tomatoes, but the real “heart” of this salad is the bread. (Hence the use of “pane,” meaning “bread” in the name.) The best choice for the bread is to use leftover stale bread, since this will really soak up the flavors of the oil, vinegar and fresh herbs.  Tuscan bread is typically made without salt, and while it is traditional, it’s not my favorite choice. Use leftover focaccia (page XX) to really bring this salad to life.

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp        red wine vinegar
• 1 clove     garlic – minced
• 1 tsp        fresh thyme – minced
• 1 tsp        fresh oregano – minced
• ¼ tsp        crushed red pepper
• ½ tsp        salt
• ¼ tsp        freshly ground black pepper
• ½ cup        extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cups        stale bread cubes – or fresh bread cubes lightly toasted
• 2 ea        red bell peppers
• 1 ea        yellow (or orange) bell pepper
• 1 ea        green bell pepper
• ½ ea        red onion
• 1 ea        cucumber – large
• ½ lb        fresh mozzarella
• 20 ea        fresh basil leaves – large,  roughly torn by hand

Method:

1. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the vinegar, garlic, thyme, oregano, crushed red pepper, salt and black pepper. While continuing to whisk, slowly add the olive oil to the bowl, and whisk to fully emulsify.
2. Pour half of the vinaigrette into a large serving bowl.  In the medium bowl where you mixed the vinaigrette, add the bread cubes and toss to coat. Set aside and allow to soak while you make the rest of the salad.
3. Slice the sides off all of the bell peppers (of all colors) and remove any seeds and white ribs on them. Cut peppers into 1” squares, and toss with the vinaigrette in the large serving bowl.
4. Cut the red onion into thin slices, and toss with the peppers.
5. Peel the cucumber and slice in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds with a spoon, and then slice crosswise into semicircles. Toss in with the peppers and onions.
6. Cut the fresh mozzarella into ½” cubes and toss with the peppers.
7. Add the bread and vinaigrette mixture to the salad, and toss everything together to combine.  Taste and correct for salt and pepper.
8. Top the salad with the torn basil leaves and toss in lightly. Serve immediately.

RESULTS:
This one has real wow factor. I made it for a lunch with Chris, Tiffany and Tom, and it was really pretty. Really pretty. And it went over pretty well. The one thing we all agreed on was that maybe there was too much onion. Like, if you really really love red onions, it would be a good amount. But if it's just sort of OK to you, you might want to cut back. Also, personally, I like my vinaigrette more on the vinegar side, but I think that's the beauty of this recipe, it's so changeable. This would be a great one to make, especially in the late summer when we've got all these peppers and no one really knows what to do with them.

Oh, and, there weren't any leftovers. Well, there were, but they didn't survive the night...If you know what I mean...Because I ate them.

Roasted Red Peppers

This is the roasted red peppers recipe that goes with this penne dish.  Chef Matt mentioned that this will work with any number of peppers (you don't need to use 4). And just a note from me: I would strongly recommend you not skimp on the foil. I did, and I have completely ruined one of my baking sheets. Good thing they're super cheap.

These roasted peppers are a useful base for so many dishes, and can add flavor and color to a lot of dishes where we are excluding tomatoes. This technique also works just fine if you want to roast orange or yellow peppers too.

Yield: ~ 2 cups

Ingredients:

• 4 ea        red bell peppers
• As needed    olive oil, salt, pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F.
2. Split each of the peppers in half lengthwise. Remove all the ribs and seeds from the inside.
3. Rub the outside of each pepper with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Place peppers on a baking pan lined with aluminum foil.
4. Roast the peppers until the outsides are very dark – black even. Rotate the pan while cooking to ensure even coverage. This process could take up to 40 minutes. Be patient and let them roast thoroughly.
5. Remove the peppers from the oven, and immediately place them in a large sealable plastic bag. Seal tightly, and let sit for 20 minutes so the skins can steam off.
6. Remove the peppers from the bag, peel off all the skin.
7. Cool peppers, and use as needed.