CityMama™

Penne with slow-cooked red pepper sauce

This is another one of those unusual pasta sauces that I learned from my aunt who lives in Rome. I fantasize about publishing a book with her pasta sauce recipes in them because they are so unique and delicious. You just don't find them in American Italian restaurants. 

Oftentimes her sauces only contain one main ingredient, usually a vegetable and usually not tomatoes. This is one example. The red bell peppers are cooked slowly until they take on a stewed consistency. By the time you toss the sauce with the penne they coat the pasta with mellow, melty pepperiness. Think roasted red peppers, but not as assertive, tossed with pasta and lots of luscious cheese.  Here's how you do it.

PASTA WITH SLOW-COOKED RED PEPPER SAUCE

• 4-5 red bell peppers, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3-4 generous glugs of olive oil
• 1 chicken bouillon cube* (or my preference, an equivalent amount of chicken base)
• 1/2 to 1 cup of water
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 box of penne
• pecorino romano cheese

*my aunt's secret weapon

Summery Pink Plum Salsa

Here's what I ended up doing with all those plums. 

I can understand why my girls don't like plums. The juicy sweetness of a perfect plum can be a little tempered by the bitterness and chewiness of the skin. I'm not about to peel plums for them (and they don't like jam) so they can eat them this way. 

SUMMERY PINK PLUM SALSA

I threw everything in the Cuisinart (pulsing the plums first, then the rest of the ingredients), but you can hand chop for a chunkier salsa. The sweetness of the plums really lends itself to salsa. Don't be afraid to use plenty of salt to bring out all the plummy flavor.  This would also be yummy with grilled fish or pork or chicken.

• 10-15 ripe plums (depending on size), quartered and seeded (not peeled)
• 1/2 sweet onion, finely chopped
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 seeded serrano pepper, finely diced
• a good packed handful of cilantro leaves, chopped
• juice of one lime
• zest of half a lime
• plenty of salt

Chop, whiz, or otherwise combine ingredients. Serve with thick tortilla chips. Makes about 2-3 cups of salsa.

Bowl: Hipster bowl (small) by Rachael Ray.

Tutorial: Basic Tomato Sauce

This is my recipe for the most basic tomato sauce in my pasta-making repertoire. Sometimes called marinara, this is a simple sauce of tomatoes, wine,  garlic, and onions, with a hint of basil flavor.  The only thing missing from above is the salt. No pepper goes into this until it's served , but you could add a dried red chili. Once made it can go straight onto pasta or—if you look at the end of the recipe—can be used for any number of things.

Since the recipe is already linked, I'll now bring it to life with photos. My special helper pretty much made the sauce her help with just a little help from me.

Homemade Hot Sauce

Some friends invited us over for brunch this morning and they gave us some serrano and habanero peppers from their garden to take home.

hot as a mutha...seriously.

I'm a little obsessed with hot sauces.  It's the most plentiful condiment in my refrigerator. Once I saw those peppers, I knew they were destined to become hot sauce.

If you have peppers, garlic, and vinegar on hand you can make your own hot sauce.  It's pretty hard to make a bad one. Try it and you'll find you can whip something up that tastes far superior to anything store-bought.

CITYMAMA'S FIERY HOT SAUCE

Wear gloves when de-seeding the peppers. For a thicker sauce, reduce amount of water and vinegar by half.

Ingredients:

• a scant 2 cups of red serrano chilis, halved and seeded
• 1/4 to 1/2 (depending on how hot you want it) of a habanero pepper, seeded
• 1 large carrot, peeled and diced (about a cup)
• 5 cloves of garlic
• a little olive oil
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 cup vinegar (white or cider)
• juice of 1 lime
• a pinch of sugar
• salt to taste (at least a teaspoon)

Cook peppers, carrots, and garlic in a little olive oil over low heat until softened, about 10 minutes. Turn heat up to high and add water, vinegar, and lime juice. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-high, and simmer for five minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and let cool.  Taste for salt.

Put mixture into a blender and process until very well blended. The mixture will be slightly chunky, but liquidy. For a more refined sauce, strain.  If you're not fancy (and I'm not) pour unstrained hot sauce into a clean bottle (empty vinegar bottles work great for this) and store in fridge. Makes about 2 cups.

Use as you would Tabasco sauce. It's yummy on eggs, grilled meats, with Mexican food, or in Bloody Caesars.

[photo credit: Stefania Pomponi Butler]

Impulse buy of the week: White balsamic vinegar

My mom called recently and told me that she's been enjoying dressing her salads with white balsamic vinegar and walnut oil. So when I saw in the vinegar section, I bought some.

I've been kind of slow to jump on the white balsamic bandwagon because, well, it just seems wrong.  But, it turns out, I was wrong.  It's delicious.  I'm not a fan of rice wine vinegar in salads but I do light the sweet-lightness that rice wine vinegar offers. White balsamic is a nice alternative.  It's mellower, not as sweet, but still has a pleasant acidic bite.

Last night I made a salad of endive, halved red grapes, and gorgonzola, and then dressed it simply with the white balsamic, walnut oil, a little salt, and lots of pepper.

Yum!

Rigatoni Alla Mondello

My preferred brand of pasta is DeCecco. It's what I grew up eating, and as far as dried pasta goes, I think it's the best. I like it mainly because it cooks up al dente like pasta should if you are paying attention, and then retains its toothsomeness instead of turning to mush. In a pinch I will buy Barilla, but for an everyday pasta, my favorite is DeCecco.

The other thing I like about DeCecco pasta are the interesting recipes you find on the back of the boxes. When I saw the recipe for Rigatoni Alla Mondello, a vegetable sauce, I knew I had to try it. I love a tomato-eggplant sauce, especially the way my Italian aunt makes it with crispy-salty pieces of eggplant in a very fresh and flavorful tomato sauce.

This sauce, however, includes zucchini and also curry powder which sounded intriguing. Once cooked it has beautiful Indian flavors, almost like a korma sauce. If you like creamy tomato sauces like the ubiquitous Penne Alla Vodka, and you like spicy flavors, you'll like this.

RIGATONI ALLA MONDELLO

Recipe copied almost verbatim from DeCecco.

Notes: I used campanelle instead of rigatoni.  Any short pasta will work. I fried the veggies in olive oil in a cast iron skillet (fill half way up with oil).

Ingredients:

some of the ingredients

• 1 lb DeCecco rigatoni
• 3/4 lb. eggplant, diced
• 3/4 lb. zucchini, diced
• 1 medium sized onion, chopped
• 2 cups pureed tomatoes (I used a can of crushed San Marzanos)
• 1 1/2 cups cream
• Parmesan cheese
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 1-2 tbsps. curry powder
• salt (and pepper)

Wash and dice the eggplant. Salt them so that they will lose their bitter taste. Wash and dice the zucchini and deep fry in oil. Drain them and place them on paper towel. Deep fry the eggplant. (Drain on paper towel.) In another large skillet, cook the very finely chopped onion in very little oil until transparent and then add the pureed tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Cover and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Take off heat and add curry and cream mixing thoroughly.

When the rigatoni are al dente, drain and pour into the skillet with the sauce. Then add the fried eggplant, zucchini, and chopped basil. Mix well over high heat (I used medium) for a few minutes. Serve with grated parmesan cheese on the side. Serves 6.

[photo credit: Stefania Pomponi Butler; white plate from IKEA]

Easy homemade macaroni and cheese

It's such a cliché that macaroni cheese is thought of as a go-to kids meal, but there's a reason: it's delicious.  What I want you to know is that in the time it takes to make macaroni from a box, you can make home made mac n cheese that tastes...different.  I was going to say better, but let's not kid ourselves, sometimes, the box stuff just hits the spot, doesn't it?

Anyway, if you have just a few staples on hand, you can make a delightful macaroni and cheese that the whole family can enjoy.

MACARONI AND CHEESE CITYMAMA-STYLE

Ingredients:

• 1 box cavatappi or other short pasta
• 1 clove of garlic, smashed/cracked (leave as whole as possible)
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups of milk (anything but non-fat)
• 3 cups of grated cheese (you can use all cheddar or a blend—I like a blend of medium cheddar, jack, and fontina)
• dash of freshly grated nutmeg
• salt and grated pepper to taste

Cook pasta 1-2 minutes less than the time indicated on the box to ensure that it is perfectly al dente.

While pasta water is coming to a boil and pasta is cooking, begin making a roux. Cook butter and garlic together in a sauce pan over low heat until the butter is completely melted and slightly foamy.  Remove garlic with a slotted spoon and discard.

Add flour and whisk together with butter.  Cook 1-1.5 minutes to get rid of any raw flour taste in your sauce.  Slowly whisk in the milk along with salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg. Raise heat slightly so that the mixture simmers, whisking constantly. Adjust heat if you need to to ensure a low simmer.

The roux will thicken after a few minutes. Be sure to continue stirring constantly. When ready for cheese, the sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Stir in cheese a handful at a time (reserving some shredded cheese for garnish) until it is completely melted.

Drain pasta and return to pot that it was cooked in.  Add cheese sauce and stir to combine. Serve in individual bowls and top with grated cheese if desired.

Note: At this point you can also put the macaroni and cheese into a buttered casserole dish and bake it topped with fresh buttered breadcrumbs (325º for 30-40 minutes or until top is nicely browned).

[photo credit: Stefania Pomponi Butler]

PASTA THAT REMINDS ME OF MY CHILDHOOD

My favorite "warms-the-heart," comforting pasta dish is the one I grew up eating: spaghetti con burro e pomodori. My mom was a working mom so it was a dish she could throw together quickly. The beauty of this sauce, like so many good pasta sauces, is that in the time it takes to boil the pasta water and cook the pasta, it's done. The recipe is simple, but the key is to use the best ingredients you can get your hands on. Don't skimp on quality. Buon appetito!

Spaghetti con burro e pomodori (Spaghetti with butter and tomato sauce)

Put pasta water on to boil. Salt it generously. When water boils, add in 1 package of (thick) spaghetti. Cook about 1 minute less than package indicates for al dente pasta.

In the mean time, melt 1/2 cup of unsalted, best-quality butter in a saute pan ove medium heat.  When butter starts to foam, add 2 cloves of minced garlic.  Heat until butter smells garlicky and is completely melted then dump in a large can of imported San Marzano whole, peeled tomatoes. Smash tomatoes up with a wooden spoon.

Continue simmering until sauce is reduced by about a third, 20 minutes or so. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss with hot, cooked pasta. Pass the grated parmesan or pecorino romano cheese. (My family is Roman, so we prefer pecorino romano.) Serves 4 as a main dish or 6 as a starter.

[photo: Stefania Pomponi Butler]

also posted on slashfood

"DIPPING"

Bunny went through a phase when she was just turning two where she had to have "dip" for her food. Pita in hummus. Strawberries in plain yogurt. Chicken in chutney. Broccoli in mayo. (You get the idea.) She called it "dipping."

A while back my sister-in-law asked me to post a recipe for sesame noodles.  It is essentially the following peanut-sesame sauce tossed with cooked noodles and garnished, but it's great on all kinds of things, not just noodles.  The amount below will sauce about a pound of noodles (soba, thin spaghetti, whatevs). And if you want to get fancy, you can garnish the noodles with daikon sprouts, thinly sliced radish, juilliened carrot or cucumber, cilantro—or any combination thereof— right before serving.

PEANUT SESAME SAUCE FOR BUNNIES

Put the following in a blender and whiz:

3/4 cup smooth peanut or almond butter
1 clove of garlic
a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
3 tbsp. light or reduced sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup honey, pure maple syrup, or rice syrup
2 tbsp. white vinegar or 3 TBSP rice wine or apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
2 tbsps. toasted sesame seeds (avail. at any Asian market)
1-2 tbsps. Sriracha hot sauce (or your favorite—optional)
2 tbsp. water

Toss with cooked noodles. Or use it as a dip for pan-fried tofu, chicken or pork skewers, or vegetables.