Simple, flavorful Bucatini all’Amatriciana

Pasta is such a wonderful, versatile food. With all the ways there are to prepare pasta, this has got to be a favorite of mine. The simplicity and minimal ingredients make it a breeze to make and it is always a hit with dinners. This dish is very Italian with some classic Italian ingredients. Here’s a little guide to the Italian terminology used.

Al dente – means “to the tooth”, used to describe pasta or other food that is cooked only until it offers a slight resistance when bitten into, but which is not soft or overdone

Bucatini; bucatoni – hollow, long strands, slightly thicker than spaghetti. bucatoni are the thicker of the two. 

Pancetta – called “Italian bacon”, pancetta is cured with salt and spices, but not traditionally smoked. Flavorful, slightly salty it comes in a sausage like roll of pink meat and white fat from the hog’s belly portion.

Pecorino Romano – in Italy a cheese made from sheep’s milk is known as pecorino. Aged pecorinos range in color from off-white to pale yellow and have a sharp, pungent flavor. An excellent hard cheese, good for grating and used mainly in cooking. 

Bucatini all’Amatriciana

½ pound pancetta, coarsely chopped

1 medium red onion thinly sliced cut into ½ to ¾ inch strips

3 garlic cloves thinly sliced

1 ½ teaspoons crushed red peppers

12 ounces tomato sauce (I like mine chunky plain tomato)

Kosher salt (to taste)

1 pound bucatini pasta

½ cup rough chopped flat-leaf parsley

Grated or shaved Pecorino Romano cheese

In a large skillet cook the pancetta over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until lightly browned.

Using a slotted spoon remove the pancetta, transferring to a plate.

Pour off all but 2 ½ tablespoons of the fat.

Add the onion, garlic and crushed red pepper to the skillet, cook over medium high heat stirring occasionally until the onion is lightly browned.

Add the tomato sauce, salt to taste simmer down until very thick approximately 10 minutes.

Meanwhile in a pot of salted boiling water, cook the bucatini to al dente, drain reserving ½ to 1 cup of the pasta water.

Add the pancetta to the thickened sauce, stir then add the pasta, parsley and ½ a cup of the reserved pasta water over medium high heat, stirring to evenly coat.

Top with the cheese.

  

Home meal delivery week of Sept 5: Summer's bounty!

Mixed greens with garbanzo beans and a medley of summer veggies

This week we made lots of fresh and interesting salads with ingredients from the summer harvest. A real mix with some Mexican, some Asian and some Italian flavors. Healthy, fresh, delicious and delivered!

Fish cakes with soy dipping sauce

This week’s home meal delivery menu:

• Watermelon, radish, red onion & grapefruit salad with feta 
• Arugula, fresh mozzarella, tomato salad with a reduction of balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil 
• Fresh cherries, blue cheese, cucumber on mixed greens 
• Jicima, carrots, citrus salad 
• Balsamic braised beef shank with whole-wheat pasta and cauliflower 
• Whole-wheat pasta with red sauce, turkey meatballs and fresh mozzarella
  
• Chicken fajitas, Mexican seasoned brown rice, pico on the side and whole-wheat soft tortillas 
• Fish cakes with brown rice pasta and peas with a soy chili dipping sauce 
• Mixed greens, roasted garlic, garbanzo beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, chicken and sunflower seeds 
• Asian chicken with brown rice and peanut sauce on the side 
• Poached salmon with a spicy pico topping and brown rice on the side 
• Roasted chicken, patty pans with sun dried tomatoes, served on lentils with toasted walnuts  

Roasted chicken, patty pans and toasted walnut lentils

Call if you would like to get in on next week's delivery – can’t wait to see what the markets provide! 

Great food delivered to your home, with the surprise factor!

The Divine Plate delivers healthy meals weekly to some of our favorite clients. Frequently, clients will ask me what will be on next week’s menu and I can’t answer them! The menu develops as I shop. I purchase what’s fresh, looks good and buy local and organic whenever possible.

I have decided to start posting menus after they are delivered to give potential subscribers an idea of what they would get. Some subscribers get two meals a day for their whole family, some just a few meals for the week.  Of course, allergies and dietary restrictions can be taken into account.

If you’d like to get signed up for next week’s delivery just give me, Chef Brooke, a call at 775-560-0890.

Lunch and Dinner Home Meal Deliveries Week of August 22

• Seared Ahi tuna with a blueberry ginger sauce, accompanied by brown rice, and sautéed broccoli and carrots with toasted sesame seed

• Pork loin with stone ground mustard and maple syrup glaze accompanied by garlic sautéed snap peas and green beans, and blue cheese roasted figs

• Steak with roasted blue cheese figs and rosemary smashed potatoes

• Quinoa shrimp salad with mixed greens

• Chicken fruit salad with chili pear dressing

• Ahi Tuna salad with a berry compote and dill lemon dressing

• Tuna casserole with snap peas, green beans and whole-wheat pasta

• Beef, broccoli, pepper, tomato whole grain pasta, side salad with raspberry balsamic vinaigrette  

• Chicken, pork and veggie stir-fry

• Salad with quinoa, veggies and beans

Maple & Mustard Pork Tenderloin with Rosemary Potatoes

I don’t think anyone is going to ever accuse me of being a great blogger. When I get caught up in the excitement of creating and putting out the food, I forget to take blog pictures and generally don't realize it until end of the meal. However, I did manage to snag a picture of this simple yet very delicious pork from a wedding buffet I did recently.

Pork tenderloin – usually tenderloins come two to a pack. On average, one feeds three to four people.

I will give you amounts for one tenderloin and just increase for more. You really can’t mess this one up.

1/3 C stone ground mustard

1 C Grade B maple syrup – you may use Grade A maple syrup if you can’t get Grade B, but B has a darker richer flavor which works really well for this recipe

1/2 t onion powder

1/2 t garlic powder 

sea salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together mustard and syrup in a pot, then put on medium heat to reduce down a little.

Remove any silver skin from the tenderloin, season with: onion powder, garlic powder, sea salt and pepper.

Heat an oven safe skillet (if you don’t have an oven safe skillet, you may transfer tenderloin from skillet to oven safe pan) on the stove to medium high with a little bit of olive oil, sear the tenderloin till nice brown on all sides.

Once seared, pour half the glaze on the tenderloin and put in a 425º preheated oven, cook for 10 minutes, pour rest of glaze on and then cook an additional 5 to 10 minutes.

Remove and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. Pour the sauce from the pan over the tenderloin before serving

Rosemary Potatoes

Redskin (cut in 1/4) or fingerling potatoes (cut in half)

Rosemary salt (see below)

Olive oil

This is great served with a rosemary, salt roasted potato. Use either redskins – quarter (try to cut to uniform sized pieces) or a fingerling style potato – halved (try to cut to uniform sized pieces).

You will need rosemary salt – you may purchase or make your own. To make your own, use a coarse ground sea salt, approximately ½ C, plu 1 Tbls dried rosemary. Put in a food processor and pulse till blended, best if you can make in advance and let the flavors blend.

Toss the cut potatoes with olive oil sprinkle with rosemary sea salt (you won’t use all of it unless you are making a lot of potatoes). Place in single layer on a sheet tray, put into a heated oven, at least 350º but may be put into a hotter oven, cook until golden brown and a little crisp.

      

Peanut Butter Rice Crispy Chocolate Bars

Last year on my work-cation at the beach, the great debate was about what defines a “chocolate cake”? My “Southern” friends state a chocolate cake is a yellow-based cake with chocolate frosting. Well, this year our debate centered around peanut butter. I’ll start by saying I am an “all natural”,  “crunchy” fan. Second choice is all natural creamy. I was able to get one vote for my preference, but I have a feeling the voter just wanted to stay on the good side of the chef. The rest of the group was divided almost 50/50 for Jiff creamy and Peter Pan crunchy.

In honor of those who don’t agree with me, I am offering a recipe that calls for a creamy peanut butter and, dare I say, it works better with the “non natural” brands. If you want to use all natural, drain off any extra oil that has separated out. These bars are very addictive, so make extra and freeze them, just cut before you freeze.

Bars

6 cups Rice Crispies (or off brand)

10 oz bag marshmallows

3 Tbls butter

Using microwave melt butter in glass bowl, add marshmallows and melt, stir in Rice Crispies. Spread mixture into a well greased 9 ½ x 11 dish. Let cool, may refrigerate if necessary.

Peanut butter topping

1 ½ pounds powdered sugar

1 pound peanut butter (less oily, the better)

½ pound butter (room temperature)

Place all ingredients into a bowl and combine by hand. I usually glove up and mix with my hands, otherwise the powder sugar tends to go flying. Once thoroughly mixed spread the peanut butter topping on the cooled Rice Crispies.

Chocolate topping/base

24 ounce chocolate chips melted

one square inch paraffin wax (this wax is edible) melted

You can cut and dip the bottom of the bar in chocolate, or just spread chocolate on top then cut. You can also use whatever chocolate you prefer from semi sweet to dark.

Combine ingredients, then dip (place on wax paper to cool) or spread.

Second method: temper your chocolate and proceed with desired method

Asian Lettuce Wraps - Light summer fare

Looking for a refreshing summer dish? You can make this dish with or without cooking by purchasing a rotisserie chicken from a grocery store. If you purchase, there will be leftovers for another meal, or you can roast your own chicken. For my Asian/Oriental dishes I have found most grocery stores carry all that I need. That said, shopping at the Asian markets offers a wider selection and I can usually make the dish for half the price. Our local market has expanded their selection to include a wider selection of brown rice style noodles and organic fare. 
Asian Lettuce Wraps

Makes enough for approximately 4

3 ounces bean thread (cellophane) noodles (I like to use the brown rice ones when available)

¼ cup fine chopped cilantro

1/8 to ¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce

1 heaping Tablespoon chile paste with garlic

2 teaspoons dark sesame oil

2 teaspoons fish sauce

2 cups chopped roasted skinless chicken

Romaine or Boston lettuce leaves, approx 12

Cover bean thread noodles with extra hot water.  Let stand for 5 minutes or until softened. Drain and rinse under cool water.  Once drained thoroughly chop noodles, ½ inch or smaller.

Combine in a separate bowl cilantro, 1/8 cup soy sauce, chile paste, sesame oil and fish sauce. Add chopped noodles and chicken to soy sauce mixture, toss well to coat, may add additional soy sauce if needed.  Spoon mixture on to lettuce leaves. 

This dish may be made in advance and kept refrigerated for a few days.

  

Working, playing and eating well in North Carolina.

After a wonderful time in Indiana, cooking for a bride and groom who have to have the best attitude I have ever encountered – even with an epic thunderstorm that took down the wedding tent they were able to smile – I made my annual summer trek to North Carolina.

This year’s work-cation, cooking for a former employer while he and his family vacation at a Duck beach house, is extended a little this year and I will be away from home over a month. Hopefully I will get some blogging done and some recipe’s posted for everyone.

Each year when I come to North Carolina I am told to cook-whatever sounds good and I have a blast re-inspiring my culinary creativity. I also have the opportunity to go out and have a fabulous meal or two prepared for me. This year’s ‘dinner out’ blew my socks off, well it would have had I been wearing socks instead of cute sandals–we are at the beach.

The whole vacationing gang (20 of us) went to The Leftbank, a four-diamond rated restaurant in Sanderling, North Carolina just north of Duck. In a word–WOW. I’ll do my best to describe what I had and will try to post the menu so you can see what was available. I need to mention the sweetbreads that I did not order, but someone at the table did and allowed me to have a taste. When done right, these are amazing and the glaze on them with the garlic scape soubise was incredible.

1st course

I started my meal out with Sonoma Artisan Foie Gras Two Ways. The two preparations; a pâté with a salted caramel corn dust and passion fruit vinegar then seared on a Georgia peach compote. Both were served with brown butter madelines, incredible flavors and melt in your mouth textures.

2nd course

Being a chef, I suppose I should be an adventuresome eater and I do try, but I have a wee bit of a hang-up if my food looks back at me or actually resembles the animal itself. So I was very excited the Ashley Farms North Carolina Rabbit had been deconstructed. When the plate came out I wasn’t sure where to start it all looked amazing – there was a small loin with coffee “crumbs”, a lumpia wrapped ragout little ribs with a rabbit jus all accompanied with sunchoke, pickled cherries, baby heirloom carrots and watercress gelée “buttons”. Each bite was a unique treat for the taste buds.

3^rd course

We were down to the wire now, as some of our party were going to try to make The Green Lantern showing so we scrambled and ordered quickly and now my brain kicks in and I remembered to get some photos. I ordered the “Potted” Berries served rather whimsically in a little terra cotta pot. This desert might have been “cute”, but it certainly delivered layers of serious flavor. The base was an almond cake that didn’t mess around and was willing to let you taste the almond flavor, topped with a light vanilla mousse–real vanilla beans were used to make this beauty–sprinkled with “chocolate earth”. These were no crumbled Oreo’s, but light, crunchy cookies of yummy dark chocolate. All this topped with fresh berries and a quenelle of homemade berries sorbet and you have your own little pot of heaven – must be eaten by inserting spoon all the way to the bottom lifting up and getting a bit of each layer.

A few at our table had the Dark Chocolate Cremeux – a caramelized white chocolate ganache, vanilla ice cream, toasted hazelnuts. This dessert melted in your mouth then danced across the taste buds as the dark chocolate quenelle preceded the ice cream and white chocolate ganache.

Hats off to Chef de Cuisine Travis Lee Robinson and his team at The Leftbank and no need to worry those in our party going to The Green Lantern made it no problem, though they didn’t order any popcorn!