Tortilla española with sauteed brocollini and tomatoes.

Preparing the tortilla. I used some shallots instead of onion.

Tortilla Española
– serves 2 –

2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes (roughly 3/4 lb)
1/2 medium onion
3 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs

Peel the potatoes, then quarter length-wise and slice about 1/8″ thick. Thinly slice the onions.

In a small bowl, stir the potatoes, onions, 2 tsp. olive oil, and 1/2 tsp. of the salt until the potatoes and onions are thoroughly coated with the oil and none of the pieces of potato are sticking together.

Heat a small nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the potato-onion mixture, turn the heat down to medium-low, cover, and cook until the potatoes are fork tender. Stir the potatoes ever 5 minutes or so. It will take about 20 minutes to cook through.

Crack the eggs into bowl you used for the potatoes and onions. Add the remaining 1/2 tsp. salt and whisk lightly. You don’t need to whip any air in or completely combine the whites and yolks.

When the potatoes are cooked, add them to the bowl with the eggs and toss to combine. Add the remaining 1 tsp. of olive oil to the skillet and turn the heat up to medium-high. You can also use spray oil if you want to use a little bit less oil, but it’s important to coat the skillet evenly. Add the potato-egg mixture to the skillet and shake the pan for 10-15 seconds to even everything out. Cook for about 2 minutes, shaking the pan every 30 seconds or so.

Now it’s time to flip the tortilla. Run a rubber spatula around the edges to loosen the tortilla from the skillet. Place a large plate upside down over the skillet. Carefully turn the whole thing over, so the tortilla comes out onto the plate. Gently slide the tortilla back into the skillet. You can smooth out any rough edges with the spatula. The top should be lightly browned, at most. Traditionally, it’s not browned at all, but I prefer a little bit of color.

Cook for another minute or two to set the other side. Use the spatula to loosen the tortilla again, then slide it out onto a plate. Serve hot out of the skillet, at room temperature, or cold.

Related Posts

1. Fried Rice
2. “Ultimate” Veggie Burgers
3. Turkish Eggs: An Easy Weeknight Dinner

For grilled pizza you’ll need to make a special kind of dough that can stand up to the high heat and also not fall through the grill grates.  The version below is adapted from Cook’s Illustrated – it’s tender and chewy and contains a hearty amount of olive oil to keep it from sticking to the grill.

Top the pizza with just about anything you want – except a traditional tomato sauce.  I don’t recommend a wet sauce as it will make the crust soggy.  Instead try some chopped tomatoes, pesto or roasted pepper puree.

Grilled Pizza Dough

2 ½ c bread flour
2 t sugar
1 t salt
1 t instant yeast
1 c water, room temp
3-4 T extra virgin olive oil

Combine first four ingredients in food processor or bowl of standing mixer.  With machine running slowly pour in water, then olive oil.  Process or mix until dough forms into a ball.

Grease a large mixing bowl with additional olive oil and add dough to bowl, tossing to coat with oil.  Allow dough to rise until doubled in size, approximately 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Gently press dough to deflate, then divide into 4 equal balls of dough.  Press each dough ball into a disk.  Spray 4 pieces of plastic wrap with nonstick spray and then loosely wrap each dough disk in wrap.  Allow dough disks to rise for an additional 20-30 minutes or until small bubbles form.

Preheat grill to 350-400 degrees.  Stretch dough disks into 9-12 inch pizzas rounds.  Don’t worry if the pizzas don’t come out perfectly round – they will taste great no matter what they look like.  Place two pizzas on the grill and at a time and cook until top is bubbly and bottom has dark grill marks, approximately 3-5 minutes.   Remove from grill and place on a platter grilled side up.

Brush grilled side of pizzas with olive oil and then top with cheese, meat and veggies of your choice.  Return pizzas to grill (uncooked side down) and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes until bottom is well browned and cheese on top is bubbling.

Remove from grill and sprinkle with fresh herbs (basil or oregano or parsley.)  Cook remaining 2 pizzas by following instructions above.

Let pizzas rest for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

Related Posts

1. Homemade Pizza
2. Cedar Plank Salmon

When at the market, I often find that the best tomatoes are the ones that smell the most like tomatoes. I know it sounds odd, but the nose does know which tomatoes will taste the best!

Eating corn and tomatoes out of hand is quite a lot of fun, however there is a more refined way to enjoy these summer delights together – in a salad. Just chop them into bite size pieces, add fresh herbs, apply a little seasoning and voila, you have a lovely salad that makes the most of summer’s bounty.

Shown served on bread.

Summer Salad of Fresh Tomatoes and Corn

1 lb fresh tomatoes
2 ears of fresh corn, cooked (approx 1 ½ cups kernels)
½ of a medium red onion (optional)
1 T minced fresh herbs – basil, oregano or thyme
2 T extra virgin olive oil

For tomatoes, heirlooms are best in this recipe because their juice combines with the olive oil to create a lovely dressing. Ripe cherry tomatoes are a good second choice.

Chop tomato(es) into small pieces and place in a medium sized bowl. Next cut corn from cobs and roughly chop to separate kernels. Add to bowl.

Mince red onion and add to bowl. Mince herbs and add to bowl. Drizzle salad with olive oil and generously season salad with salt and pepper. Stir salad to combine and let sit at room temperate for 30 minutes to allow flavors to meld. Do NOT refrigerate before serving as cold degrades essential flavor compounds in tomatoes.

Serving suggestions:
1) topping for toasted bread
2) side dish for grilled meat
3) as a light supper, add crumbled feta or mozzarella cheese

Related Posts

1. Fattoush: Lebanese Bread Salad
2. Summer Soup for “Love Apple” Season: Gazpacho
3. Oven-Roasted Tomatoes with Thyme and Garlic

Turns out I can’t get enough of drupes – but this time, from an unexpected source: sumac.

Do you ever buy ingredients without a recipe in mind? Guilty. Sumac is one of those orphans in my cabinets that now has found a home in at least one recipe that I plan to make again.

After spending an early Sunday afternoon with the Perfectly Edible crew, stuffing myself with dim sum (apparently we are addicted to dim sum), a light dinner was in order. Flipping through a cookbook for inspiration, “sumac” caught my eye and fattoush it was.

What the heck is sumac, you ask? It’s a purply-red spice that’s used in Middle Eastern cuisine and it comes from a berry (a drupe!) that’s dried and ground to a powder. Those of you from the East Coast may have heard of “poison sumac”… that’s up there in the Itchy Hall of Fame with poison ivy and poison oak and NOT what you want to eat.

The edible variety of sumac grows in Africa and North America and is characterized by a red berry. When I taste the spice by itself, I don’t get a very strong flavor, but I think it adds depth to the citrus dressing of the salad. And a pretty color.

This salad will be even better when it’s “really” summer and the tomatoes are in their prime. We ate it as a main course, but it would be delicious as a side with grilled chicken or meat.

Fattoush: Lebanese Bread Salad
- serves 3 to 4 -
Adapted from Joanne Weir’s More Cooking in the Wine Country

Salad
1 large cucumber, seeded and cubed (and peeled, if waxed)
2 medium-sized tomatoes, diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and cubed
4 green onions, green and white part thinly sliced
1/3 c chopped parsley
1/3 c chopped mint
1 small head romaine lettuce, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 c baby arugula
2 whole wheat pita rounds
1 t sumac
spray canola oil
salt, pepper

Dressing
2 cloves garlic, minced
juice of 1 lemon
1/3 c olive oil
1 ½ t sumac
salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Tear pita bread into bite-sized pieces and place on a cookie sheet. Lightly spray them with canola oil and sprinkle with 1 t sumac and some salt. Toast for about 12 minutes, until crisp.

For salad, combine cucumber, tomatoes, bell pepper, green onion, parsley, and mint in a large bowl.

For dressing, whisk garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, 1 ½ t sumac, and salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle over salad, mix.

Just before serving, mix lettuce, arugula and pita in with the dressed salad. Adjust salt and pepper as needed.

Related Posts

1. Summer Chopped Salad of Tomatoes and Corn
2. Duck Confit Salad
3. Tomato Avocado Salad w. Mustard Thyme Vinaigrette

And what about lunch? It can’t be leftovers of the thick, hearty meal from the night before every day. And I’m not about to slap a piece of tofu between two slices of granola-spelt bread, slather it with veganaise, and pretend it tastes good.

So I went in search of veggie burgers. But I certainly didn’t want the individually wrapped soy-pucks you can find in the freezer section of your local Stop-n-Rob. And most recipes I’ve tried in the past are heavy on curry or cumin to cover up the overwhelming bean flavor. When your burger starts out with curry, there are only so many directions you can take it with sauces and other fixings.

On a whole wheat bun. Yeah, we're hippies

To the rescue? Cooks Illustrated. In the archive, they have a recipe for the “Ultimate Veggie Burgers.” That’s quite a promise. But they usually deliver, and this recipe is no exception.

The only caveat is that it’s a pain. The recipe makes 12 servings, so you get a lot, including leftovers that keep well, for the effort. But it’s a lot of effort. You can throw together some black bean patties in 20 minutes from can to plate. These are not those. These are better.

I think the key is the mix of mushrooms, lentils, and bulgur. All three add substance and flavor, but still leave you flexibility in terms of what you add later.

Ultimate Veggie Burgers
adapted from Cooks Illustrated
– serves 12 -

3/4 C dried green lentils, rinsed
2 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 C bulgur
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 C chopped onion (about 2 medium or 1 large onion)
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 small leek (white and light green parts), chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced.
1 lb. brown or white mushrooms sliced.
1 C raw unsalted cashews
1/3 C mayonaise
2 1/2 C panko bread crumbs
black pepper

1. Bring the lentils to a boil in 3 cups of water with 1 tsp of salt over high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook uncovered for 25 minutes. Drain the lentils in a mesh strainer and then spread them out on a baking sheet lined with paper towels to dry out a bit. Cool to room temperature.

2. While the lentils are cooking bring 2 cups of water and 1/2 tsp of salt to a boil in a small pan. Add the bulgur, stir, cover, and remove from the heat. Soak for about 15-20 minutes, until the water is absorbed. Drain in a mesh strainer and gently press out the excess moisture. Set aside in a large mixing bowl.

3. In a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp of oil over medium high heat. Add the onions, celery, leeks, and garlic. Stir occasionally and cook until everything starts to brown, about 10 minutes. Spread these veggies out on a baking pan and cool to room temperature. (If you’re doing this all in order, the lentils are probably cook by now, so add them to the mixing bowl with the bulgur and re-use the same sheet pan).

4. Add 1 Tbsp of oil to the same skillet and turn the heat up to high. Cook the mushrooms , stirring occasionally, until they start to brown. They should give off all of their liquid, and then that liquid should cook off, so you have a pretty dry batch of cooked mushrooms. It takes 12-15 minutes. Spread the mushrooms on the pan with the other veggies and cool to room temperature.

5. Chop the cashews in the food processor for a few pulses. Coarse is ok since it’s all going to get mixed and chopped again.

6. Add the cashews, veggies, mushrooms, and mayonaise to the bowl with the bulgur and lentils and mix everything up. Move half of the mixture to the food processor and pulse about 15 times. It should be a coarse-textured paste. Transfer this to another bowl and repeat with the second half of the mixture. Combine it all in the big bowl you started with.

7. Add the panko, 1 tsp of salt, and ground pepper to the mixture and mix thoroughly.

8. Shape into patties about 4″ in diameter and 1/2″ thick, and place the patties on a baking sheet lined with paper towels.

9. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a nonstick skillet over high heat. Cook the patties for 4 minutes per side, until golden. If they’re browning too fast, turn it down a bit.

Cooks Illustrated says you can cook these on the grill for 5 minutes per side, but I haven’t tried it yet. Extra patties can be stored in plastic wrap in the fridge or freezer. Remove from the freezer and thaw overnight in the fridge on a paper-towel lined plate before cooking.

Related Posts

1. Adventures in Healthy Cooking

A) Farro is an ancient grain that has been eaten in Italy for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years.

B) People disagree on what to call it. To some it is known as emmer, others say it’s a kind of spelt, and then there’s another group that insists farro is its own unique species of wheat.

C) There’s an Italian institute for “underutilized species” that has compiled everything you’d ever want to know about farro in a short paper (that’s right, get your geek on).

Here’s how I learned to cook farro: soak it overnight (like you would for dried beans), then simmer it for 7-10 minutes, finally drain it and then let it steam. The result was a fluffy, slightly nutty grain with a gentle toothsomeness that is familiar yet unique.

I prepared this first batch of farro as a warm salad and the recipe that follows is similar to an Italian-style fried rice – it’s quite versatile and very satisfying.

Preparing the farro:

6-8 hours prior to the meal:
1) Rinse 1½ cups of farro in a couple of changes of water until little residue remains.
2) Soak farro in 3-4 cups of room temperature water for 6-8 hours.

At meal-time:
3) Drain farro from soaking water.
4) Simmer farro in 3-4 cups of lightly salted water for 7-10 minutes, until just al dente.
5) Remove from heat, drain farro and then return to pot. Farro should be covered and left to steam for another 5-7 minutes,

Warm Farro Salad
- serves 2-3 as a main course, 4-5 as a side -

3 cups farro prepared as outlined above
4 strips of bacon – thick cut is best
1 large leek, chopped, rinsed and dried
2 small carrots, chopped
4-6 ounces of button mushrooms, sliced
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 TBS of chopped fresh herbs – I used oregano
2 TBS of extra virgin olive oil

Cut bacon into small pieces and cook in large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet and set aside. Remove skillet from heat and pour off all but 1 TBS of bacon fat. Return pan to heat and add leek, cooking until translucent (4-5 min). Add carrots and cook for 3 more minutes until just tender. Add mushrooms and cook until softened, another 2-3 min. Make a well in center of skillet, add 1 tsp of oil and fry garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add farro and toss to combine with all ingredients in skillet and season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and add remaining olive oil, tossing to coat. Serve in bowls and garnish with herbs and bacon bits.

Suggested variations:
1) Can easily be made vegetarian (vegan, actually) by omitting the bacon and beginning by adding 1 TBS of olive oil to skillet instead of bacon fat. Garnish with toasted pine nuts for crunch and protein.
2) Easily accommodates any complementary group of veggies such as sundried tomatoes and spinach or roasted red peppers and onions.

Related Posts

No related posts were found, so here's a consolation prize: Blueberry Ginger Snap Ice Cream.

This inspiration led to a discussion of leafy green vegetables and hearty whole grains. But discussion didn’t lead to much action, at first. We have a good routine in our kitchen, and we can manage a week of fairly healthy, enjoyable dinners with pretty minimal effort. Routine doesn’t include a ton of weeknight culinary adventures though. We talked a big game, but other than brown rice, whole grains were nowhere to be found, and kale, chard, and even the less-novel spinach, never made an appearance.

The solution? Vegetarian Week 2010

Curry Prep

To really dig into the grains and veggies we claimed to want to try, we had to force the issue. A week-long commitment to meatless meals required us to put a little more thought into recipes and menu-planning up front than usual. Thankfully, there are some good resources out there for the carnivore who’s veg-curious. I started with our under-utlized copy of Rebecca Wood’s The Splendid Grain and 101 Cookbooks.

After a Korean BBQ-induced meat fugue on Saturday night, we started the week with palak daal, a great lentil dish. Then we had kasha paprikas from The Splendid Grain with a quick black bean soup and a salad, followed by a mushroom and spinach pasta. By far, the best meal yet was the cashew curry dish below, from 101 Cookbooks.

Two observations about vegetarian cooking:

• You have to like beans. A lot. Black beans. Lentils. Tofu. Somehow or another, you need to get some protein in your meals, and beans are pretty central to the non-meat protein world.
• You have to like cutting vegetables. A lot. Chop this. Dice that. Mince this. It’s a mise en place marathon.

But we’ve been really enjoying it, and learning a lot about grains and veggies that we can incorporate into our normal omnivorous lifestyle. If you’ve got a suggestion for a good veggie recipe, let us know in the comments.

Cashew Curry

Cashew Curry
Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

1 1/2 c. coconut milk
3 tablespoons curry powder*
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2/3 c. water
7 ounces extra firm tofu (half a standard package), cut into small cubes*
1 1/4 c. green beans, cut into 1-inch segments
2 c. cauliflower (about half a head), cut into tiny florets
1/2 cup cashews*
a handful of cilantro, loosely chopped

1. In a dry skillet, toast the cashews over medium-high heat. Keep the pan moving so that the cashews don’t scorch. Toast until the cashews start to brown and there’s a nice aroma, about 3 minutes. Set the cashews aside off the heat.

2. Bring half the coconut milk to a simmer in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. Whisk in the curry powder.

3. Add the onions and garlic and cook for a minute.

4. Add the remaining coconut milk, water, and tofu. Cook for 5 minutes.

5. Stir in the cauliflower and green beans, lower the heat to medium, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes.*

6. Remove from the heat and stir in the toasted cashews.

Serve over [brown] rice, topped with chopped cilantro.

*Notes: A couple things I changed from the original recipe.

1. I used pre-made curry powder. I don’t doubt the flavor would be better if I toasted and ground the spices myself, as the original recipe suggests. And if you want to, more power to you. But don’t let that be what stops you from making this recipe.
2. In the original recipe, tofu is optional. I don’t think this would be substantial enough for a main dish without it.
3. The cashews were my favorite part. You could probably go up to 3/4 cup, or garnished with some crushed cashews, and make it better, without it being over the top.
4. In the original recipe, the veggies only cook for a minute or two, just to take the raw crunch off. We had this dish with a salad, so there were already plenty of raw vegetables involved. You don’t want to cook the veggies until they dissolve, but I think the extra time improves the texture and gives the curry flavor a little more time to get into the cauliflower.

But the recipe is pretty forgiving, so you can adapt to your taste.

Related Posts

1. “Ultimate” Veggie Burgers
2. Giant Butter Bean & Feta Gratin
3. Chicken and Lentil Curry

Rourke was out of town for a few days, so I was on my own for dinner. Left to my own devices, I generally do one of two things:

• Experiment. Sometimes this has led to tasty things, and sometimes this has led to awful things that immediately needed to be thrown out.
• Scavenge. It is amazing what you will put together when you are too lazy to cook or go out for food. Cheese and crackers + can of tuna + a few carrots = a somewhat balanced meal?

The thing that I end up cooking often, though, is fried rice. Easy, quick, and a good way to throw together odds and ends that you might have in the fridge. For me, you need just a few basic ingredients for fried rice: leftover rice, eggs, scallions, white pepper, salt, and sugar. That’s it.

You might notice that there isn’t any soy sauce in that list. Cantonese fried rice doesn’t need soy sauce. You could maybe drizzle a small amount on if you really want to. But the stuff that you buy in a lot of the open kitchen, chinese take out spots where the fried rice is brown from soy sauce? Not it.

A few tips when making fried rice:

• The most important thing is that you use chilled, leftover rice. Freshly cooked rice has too much moisture and will result in a mushy, gluey mess.
• If you are adding meat or vegetables, you need to cook everything separately. This is done so that each individual ingredient retains its own flavor rather than tasting like everything else in the pan. You would cook in order of most delicate flavor to heaviest flavor. For example, eggs, then vegetables, then meat.

In the above photo, I had some lap cheong, which is chinese sausage, in the fridge so I added that to my fried rice. Here in the Bay Area, Wycen Foods makes excellent lap cheong.

Fried Rice
- serves 1 –

canola oil
1 cup of leftover rice
2 large eggs
2 scallions, sliced into rounds
kosher salt
granulated white sugar
ground white pepper
pre-cooked lap cheong, diced (optional)

1. Heat a medium non-stick skillet with approx 1 Tbs of canola oil over medium high heat.

2. When hot, crack the eggs directly in the pan. When the whites start to set, use your spatula to scramble the eggs. When the eggs are about 85% cooked, remove to a plate and season with a pinch or so of salt. The eggs end up looking more marbled than scrambled. If you prefer, you could scramble the eggs in a separate bowl before cooking in the skillet.

3. Add the scallions to the pan (add a touch of oil if pan is too dry) and stir fry until fragrant, usually about 30 seconds. Remove scallions to the plate that is holding the eggs.

4. Add the rice and lap cheong to the pan.* Add a few pinches of salt, sugar, and some ground white pepper and mix into the rice. Spread the rice across the bottom of the skillet and cover. There is no need to add water to the pan. As the rice heats up, there will be just enough steam to cook it perfectly. Cook until the rice and the lap cheong are heated through, usually about a minute or two.

5. Remove the lid and add the eggs and scallions to the rice and mix. Cover again until the the eggs and scallions are also heated through, usually about 30 seconds or so. Taste and adjust seasoning and serve.

* Since the lap cheong was already cooked, I just needed to heat it up, so it made sense to add it at the same time as the rice. If you wanted to add shrimp, chicken, or any other meat that wasn’t already cooked, however, you would cook the meat after the scallions had been removed from the pan. Once the meat was cooked, you would remove the meat from the pan before adding the rice, and then add the meat back to the rice at the same time that you added the eggs and scallions.

Related Posts

1. Pan Fried Noodles with Ground Pork and Baby Chard
2. Black Cod en Papillote with Ginger and Scallions
3. Turkish Eggs: An Easy Weeknight Dinner

I’m cursed by a total inability to cook the “magical fruit” from scratch. Every time I try, I end up with rock-hard nubbins that would be better as pebbles on the bottom of a fish tank than dinner.

Fortunately, there is a wide selection of the canned variety at the store.

While I like bacon as much as the next girl, I don’t miss meat ONE BIT when eating this bean gratin: creamy beans in a savory sauce, topped with crunchy bread crumbs and salty cheese. You have got to try it – healthy, hearty, cheap and easy. Hard to beat.

How did this delectable bean dish enter my life? I ordered a similar bean gratin at Nopa one night, years ago. Since then, it’s become one of my favorite dishes at the restaurant, even as it changes to incorporate seasonal ingredients. I wanted to try replicating it at home but I was nervous about making the right sauce. Then a friend of mine mentioned a dish she had at Ubuntu and a recipe for the dish in the New York Times… and although that dish is more of a soup, the flavors seemed right, so I adapted it to make this bean gratin. The results = good.

I chose butter beans — big, creamy beans — for the recipe. Apparently they are in the lima bean family, but they are pale yellow and much larger and softer. Lima beans originated in Lima, Peru. Who knew, though I guess it should have been obvious.

The butter beans I bought at the grocery store (in a can!) were from Italy (wait, I thought they were Peruvian!). A true staple of the cooking of so many cultures, beans have traveled all over the world, so they seem to “come” from everywhere. In a past life, I did some PR work related to beans and nutrition and learned a bit about beans’ history and culinary trends. (I know it’s a “commercial” site, but the papers on the “professional” pages are really informational and pretty interesting.)

In total, this recipe took me about a half an hour to prepare from start to finish. Serve with a green salad for a quick weekday meal.

Giant Butter Bean & Feta Gratin
- serves 6 -

olive oil
1 large carrot, diced
1 large rib celery, diced
1 large leek, white and green parts only, diced
1/3 of a head of garlic, minced
1t red chili flakes
1T fresh rosemary, minced
1 28-oz. can whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes,* drained and chopped + about 2-3T of the tomato juice
2 14-oz. cans butter beans
2T fresh parsley, chopped
salt & pepper
feta cheese
dry bread crumbs

Saute carrots, celery, leeks, garlic, chili flakes, rosemary and a pinch of salt and pepper in a few tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven until vegetables are just starting to soften. Add tomatoes, tomato juice, beans and parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mixture should have a little liquid, like the beans are in a tomato sauce — not a soup. Add more tomato juice if needed, or simmer to reduce the liquid.

Fill individual ceramic or clay dishes (that you can put in the oven) with about 3/4-1 cup of the bean mixture (whatever fits). Sprinkle generously with crumbled feta cheese and about a teaspoon of dry bread crumbs. Drizzle with olive oil to moisten the bread crumbs. Broil about 8-10 minutes or until the topping is slightly browned.

* San Marzano are meaty plum tomatoes.

Related Posts

1. Bean and Kale Soup
2. Summer Chopped Salad of Tomatoes and Corn
3. Spaghetti with Swiss Chard and Toasted Garlic Breadcrumbs

If this “pasta con il pangrattato” or pasta with breadcrumbs doesn’t make you feel like you’re getting something awesome for next to nothing, I don’t know what will. It’s an easy weeknight dish that uses the simplest (and cheap!) ingredients that you probably already have on hand. I make breadcrumbs by air drying or toasting those last pieces of bread from the loaf or baguette no one wants to eat. It’s satisfying to bludgeon them with a heavy meat tenderizer tool (put them inside a plastic bag first so you don’t spray bits of bread all around the kitchen) while visualizing that guy who almost mowed me down in the crosswalk.

I love the contrast of the wilted greens with the crunchy breadcrumbs. The addition of lemon zest at the end brightens up the flavors.

Spaghetti with Swiss Chard and Toasted Garlic Breadcrumbs
- serves 4 -

1 T olive oil
3 T bread crumbs
1 clove garlic, minced
salt & pepper

2-3 T olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ t red pepper flakes (or more, to taste)
4 cups swiss chard, roughly chopped
salt & pepper
¾ lb. spaghetti
zest of ½ lemon
olive oil
Parmesan cheese

Put a pot of water on to boil. While this is heating up, make the rest of the dish:

For the breadcrumbs: Heat 1T olive oil in a large sauté pan. Add garlic and salt and pepper. Cook for a minute or so to flavor the oil. Don’t burn the garlic! Add the breadcrumbs, stirring to coat in the oil. Add a little more salt and pepper, to taste. When the breadcrumbs are toasted (about five minutes), scrape them out of the pan onto a plate and set aside.

For the swiss chard: In the same pan, add the 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, the three cloves of minced garlic, red pepper flakes, a little salt and pepper, and sauté until the garlic just begins to brown. Add the swiss chard stems first, cook for a few minutes and then add the leaves and salt and pepper. Cook just until the leaves are wilted.

For the pasta: Once the water comes to a boil, add salt and then the pasta. Cook until al dente.

To assemble: Scoop the cooked pasta out of the pot and directly into the sauté pan with the swiss chard. If you’d prefer to strain the pasta, just be sure to reserve some of the pasta water. Stir pasta and swiss chard with a drizzle of olive oil and some of the pasta water (pasta should not be dry). Add the lemon zest and salt and pepper to taste. Serve topped with toasted garlic breadcrumbs and grated parmesan cheese.

Related Posts

1. Pan Fried Noodles with Ground Pork and Baby Chard
2. Noodles – Two Recipes in One
3. Orecchiette with Pork, Tomatoes, and Arugula